Plumbing, Mold, and Furthermore
by Barry Blauer
We have an icemaker and lately it’s been making hollow ice cubes. From what I read about it the problem was not enough water flow so I went downstairs to the darkroom and turned the feed line valve a quarter of a turn to see if that helped. It did but the damned thing started leaking. Even when I shut it completely off it still leaked. It’s typical for water valves to do that. Once you disturb them be prepare for problems.
I was going to relocate/replace the feed line valve but my main shut off valve wouldn’t shut the water completely off. That meant I couldn’t solder the hole shut where the old valve went into the copper pipe. It was like trying to patch an inner tube that’s full of air! My only choice was to use a hose clamp and a piece of rubber to seal the leaking hole off. It was a genuine Redneck repair but not one I wanted over the long haul. I went ahead and moved the new icemaker feed valve to a new location.
I decided what I had in the basement wasn’t good enough and we’d had our water main valve replaced once before. After 43 years of living here it seemed reasonable that we had to replace it again. We called the plumber and he came to replace our main valve with a new ball valve. The lever only has to move ¼ of a turn and it’s shut off. The old one took forever to turn it off. Then he repaired the copper pipe in the darkroom where the old icemaker feed line was located.
It took a wheelbarrow load of newly printed Federal Reserve Notes to pay for it; all just to get an icemaker to work right again but then the bulk of the cost was for replacing the main shut off valve. We are now getting solid ice cubes again. I’ll put my ice cubes up against anybody’s; they’re whole, solid, and pretty as hell! The City also replaced our water meter at the same time. It allows them to take a wireless reading from the road. I hope the new meter doesn’t spin as fast as the old one.
* * *
We’ve got mold growing on the north side siding of our house. It’s been there for a couple of years. We contacted a guy who does power washing of houses but he failed to show up for the appointment. We didn’t get phone call or an explanation of why he didn’t show up so we decided we had to do something ourselves. We bought a new sprayer with an electric pump mostly for the fruit trees but we decided to try it on the house. There’s a product out called, Wet and Forget. It’s supposed to take care of mold, mildew, and moss on siding and other things. It’s a 5 to 1 mixture so it’s difficult trying to figure out how much per gallon. Normally it’s ounces to gallons. I was very please with the new sprayer as it was almost able to spray all the way up to the peak of our Cape Cod house. With a 6ft. step ladder I got all of the areas I needed to.
As of today the green mold is turning brown. I associate brown with dead. So far, so good.
* * *
And Furthermore:
The real definition of Quantum Easing or QEIII is printing money that isn’t backed by an increase in wealth. Anybody heard of Monopoly play money? Well that’s what it is. It ends up devaluating the current dollar which means our debt isn’t worth as much. Neither is our money.
“Read the Bills Act” is sponsored by Rand Paul and basically says that before a senator or representative vote on a bill they must read it and sign an affidavit saying they did. As of today I’ll bet you none of these jokers have read the Oblamacare Bill!
I recorded the Spartans/Notre Dame game on DVD and watched it. A big finger was pointed at the quarterback, Andrew Maxwell. Well I beg to differ. I thought the whole team was as flat as a pancake including the coaching staff. They all lost. Better luck with Eastern Michigan.
Until the next time . . .