Snow, Ice And A Faucet
It has been a fairly cold couple of weeks. I couldn’t see out the side mirrors of my truck because they were coated with ice. Fortunately for me since I work at home my wife does most of the driving. I don’t mind driving in rain or even snow. But, once the roads get covered with ice I leave the driving to other people. Aside from driving, I do enjoy the wintry weather even if it means that I have to shovel the driveway up to three times a day.
A few days ago, I decided to get some winter clothes. I have a nice jacket (that I’ve had for over five years). But, I wanted something that would cover my head as well. I picked up a new jacket that came with a hood. This makes the snow shoveling a lot warmer. Also, since I kept complaining about a loss of dexterity when I wearing gloves, I got a pair of fingerless gloves. These gloves are a lot warmer than my previous pair. It looks like a mitten, but when I need to use my fingers (like when I’m trying to tie my shoes), I can remove part of the glove to expose my fingertips. I picked the stuff up for a song at Wal*Mart. I should have known better; the outer lining of the gloves started to fall apart after shoveling snow a few times. The damage was easily repaired with a sewing kit. I’m still trying to find a nice pair of snow boots though.
I like to get my taxes done before March, so I picked up the latest edition of TurboTax. I’ve used TurboTax for the last few years with good success. Since I use Quicken for all of my financials, it usually only takes about a day to do my taxes.
My wife wanted a new kitchen faucet for her birthday (which is today). I’ve replaced a faucet or two in my time, so I didn’t think that I’d have many problems. I was wrong. I figured that in addition to a new faucet, I should replace the supply lines. To make sure I had the correct length, I decided to remove one of the supply lines before we went to the store to pick out a faucet. The shutoff valves under the sink slowed down the water but it didn’t shut it off completely. So, I had to shut off the water for the entire house. Also, I had to turn on the faucets upstairs and downstairs to remove all of the pressure from the lines.
Once the water stopped dripping, I started to remove the line. The first nut came off surprisingly easy. I had expected it to be rusted on. The second nut (connected near the faucet) was much harder. I couldn’t quite get a good look at the connection; so I had to remove the nut by feel. I had turned the nut a few times, but it didn’t seem to be getting looser. I finally figured out that the supply line was connected to another flexible pipe. Once I figured that out the supply line came out nicely. Of course, it only took about thirty minutes.
After braving icy roads for a half-hour, we arrived at Home Depot. We spent at least another half-hour looking through their catalogs to find the right faucet. Once we found the once we wanted, we were told that we would have to order it and wait for three days. Apparently, they were in the process of remodeling their kitchen section so they didn’t have any faucets on hand. They suggested going to a different store. Ugh. Since it was getting quite dark out, we decided to go back home. A half-hour later, we were back where we started. Yesterday, we were able to go to a different Home Depot for a faucet. Hopefully, I’ll have it installed by tomorrow.
Tagline for today: “Doin’ a little work around the house. I put fake brick wallpaper over a real brick wall, just so I’d be the only one who knew. People come over and I’m gonna say, ‘ Go ahead, touch it. It feels real.’” - Steven Wright