Plumbing Trouble for Wordless and Words for Wednesday

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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday and Sandee at Comedy Plus.     Also, finally remembering to link up with Steve at BeThere2Day.

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Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and has become a moveable feast of word or picture or music prompts to encourage us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.    

This month, the prompts are being provided by Lee at Kitchen Connection.   

The words this week are:

physical

partial

performance

melee

odyssey

amplify

and/or 

bearing

accomplish

deficient

hullabaloo

concrete 

cultural

Yesterday, i left the house as normal for Ms. RW’s house.

It was to be the last normal part of the day, although i am not sure why i say that.  After all, everything turning into a HULLABALOO is about average for us, isn’t it?  

Please don’t answer that.

Anyway, this ODYSSEY began innocently enough a few days ago with a call from Handyman Mike.  He is the saint who has managed to help us avert several near disasters.  He’d called to schedule our annual inspection of the generator, the PERFORMANCE of which, even as old as it is, we count on if the electricity goes out.

Sweetie has been noting that our water pressure at the kitchen sink has been DEFICIENT and leaves something to be desired.  This has not bothered me, but it was leaving him underwhelmed.

He decided to ask Handyman Mike, while he was here, to give it a look and see what he thought might be causing it.

Not a bad idea, right?  ACCOMPLISH getting two things done in one handyman visit.

If you think the answer is yes, you don’t know us very well yet.

Handyman Mike noted that the hoses carrying water to the sink were too small.  Upon beginning to take everything apart to replace that, he discovered that the faucet itself was no longer up to snuff due to PHYSICAL deterioration over time.

As all of this was going on at the house, Handyman Mike running out for a new faucet, i remained in blissful ignorance of all that was going on at home as i worked on Ms. RW’s house.

Somewhere in the comings and goings of Handyman Mike and his assistant, water began pouring out from under the sink, making me grateful we have a vinyl over CONCRETE floor, not wood.  In the ensuing MELEE, which included going for the spare work towels that are kept in the trunk of Lunceford the Land Yacht to help with the mess, Dansig got out of the door.  In trying to catch him, Sweetie thought Enigma SissyCat had also escaped.

Sweetie could not find her, and panicked.

He searched, Handyman Mike and his assistant worked on the mess and getting a faucet installed, and the small water heater that serves only the kitchen sink decided to AMPLIFY the difficulties.  The pressure valve decided to quit BEARING the pressure, and water began to pour out of the release valve's outdoor spigot. 

Handyman Mike did not realize right away this had happened, so he and his assistant, while trying to calm Sweetie and reassure him about the cat while getting the faucet on, prepared to leave for their next job.

The first thing i know about any of this is Sweetie calling and telling me he is coming to my worksite, and that when he gets there, he has news and i will need to drop everything and come to the car to talk to him.

Why not tell me over the phone?  The only thing i can figure is that it is a CULTURAL difference, as in he’s a dude and i am not.

He never checks the calendar that is huge and lives on the side of the fridge to see where i am, so he went to the wrong house.

He called to ask where i was, and i refused to tell him until he told me what in tarnation was going on, did someone die?  (This was not an idle question, as his biological sister’s husband did in fact die three days ago suddenly, we are all a bit shell shocked still.)

At that point, he told me about the cat, and the sink, and that his precious SissyCat was probably gone forever, and now he was back home and water was pouring out of a pipe coming out of the back of our house and flooding the back yard and what to do, his cat was gone!

First, i noted, let’s call Handyman Mike and find out where the water might be coming from, and go from there.

What about my cat! he was wailing, as i tried to reassure him that the cat had probably never gotten out to begin.  The assistant had seen Dansig run out and alerted Sweetie, but he swore SissyCat never set foot near the door, he never saw her the whole time he was there.

Handyman Mike, poor guy, fielded several calls as we tracked down what the trouble might be, finally deciding it was a bad release valve on the old water heater.  First he had me relate To Sweetie how to release the pressure and maybe get the valve to close.  No good.  We tried a couple of other things, nothing.

Turn off the water to the sink and it will stop was his final piece of advice, and he would come back the next morning with a new release valve for the water heater.

Now i have to hand it to Ms. RW.  When all of this was going on, me receiving and making call after call as i tried to do my work, she not only did not complain, she stopped and prayed with me.  It helped me release some of my pressure that i wanted to go smack some sense into my Sweetie!

Ms. RW began telling me i should go and get to the house and deal with all of the mess.  Not wanting to leave a job unfinished, i resisted until i only had one floor to mop and polish.  At that point, she took me by the arm, walked me to the door, handed me a check, and told me to go home.

Now do you see why i am PARTIAL to my clients and want to serve them well?

Home i went, and turned off the water to the sink, which Sweetie had no clue how to do, then i toggled the relief valve on the water heater and released the water faster, what was left of it.  The water ceased pouring out of the pipe at the back of the house.

Enigma SissyCat was still not to be found, so i walked to some areas outdoors where i thought she might hide, then betook myself to the bank and the pharmacy, as i could not put the errands off.  After all, everything at home was stable for the moment, except for the cat situation, and i was still not convinced she’d gotten out.

After getting back from the errands, during which i prayed and sang along to every praise song on the radio, and listened closely to a new one by Zack Williams that features Dolly Parton and being utterly enchanted by it, i walked in the house, said, Lord, if you want, you can find our cat, and at that exact moment Enigma SissyCat walked right past me. 

As suspected, the workmen in the house had sent her into hiding, and she had never left the premises.

Upon resigning ourselves to a night without water in the kitchen, Handyman Mike again proved his worth, coming back with his assistant and getting that valve replaced, which meant, after a bit of drying time, we were able to turn on the water.

Handyman Mike went home, we thought all was well.

Then i noticed the cabinet in which the water heater sits was not drying, and upon my drying it, more water pooled.

We washed the dishes, turned the water off, unplugged the water heater, and Handyman Mike will be back.  Stay tuned.

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Today is:

Be a Millionaire Day - now we all can go for that

Blue Jeans Day -- Levi Strauss and David Jacobs received the patent for their denim pants with riveted pockets on this day in 1873

Dainty-Four Remembrance Day  -- Fairy Calendar

Eliza Doolittle Day* -- in honor of Shaw and his famous fictional character, to encourage proper use of one's native language

Emancipation Day -- Florida, US

Emergency Medical Services for Children Day -- because children need different care, they aren't just tiny adults  

Festival of Mjollnir -- Ancient Norse Calendar (feast of Thor's Hammer, date approximate)

Flying Solo Day -- Lindberg began his historic flight on this day in 1927

Frigga Blot -- Slavic Pagan/Asatru (honoring Frigga)    

Grudie Rosnoe -- Slavic Pagan/Asatru (ten days of sacrifices to Rod for rain and good harvests)

Independence Day -- East Timor(2002)

Hari Kebangkitan Nasional Indonesia -- Indonesia (Indonesian National Awakening Day)

Lailat al Kadr (Lailat al Qadr) -- Islam (Night of Destiny; began at sundown yesterday, through sundown tonight, although local observances may vary and governmental days off vary from country to country)

Mecklenburg Day -- North Carolina, US (commemoration of the signing of a declaration of independence from England by the citizens of Mecklenburg County on this day in 1775)

National Day -- Cameroon

National Quiche Lorraine Day

Norman Rockwell Day -- his first Saturday Evening Post cover appeared this day in 1916

Pick Strawberries Day

St. Bernadine of Siena's Day (Patron of advertising and advertisers, communications personnel, compulsive gamblers/gambling addicts, public relations work and personnel; Italy; Aquila, Italy; Capri, Italy; Castelspina, Italy; Trevignano, Italy; the diocese of San Bernardino, California; against compulsive gambling, chest, lung, and respiratory problems and hoarseness of the throat)

St. Ives' Day (an honest lawyer; in the Anglican tradition, Patron of abandoned children and orphans, advocates, canon lawyers, judges, lawyers, and notaries; in the Roman Catholic tradition, Patron of Saint Ives, Cambridgeshire, England)

T'veer Chong Kamhaeng -- Cambodia (Day of Remembrance, anniversary of Khmer Rouge regime takeover in 1975, a day to remember all who died at their hands and work for peace)

Weights and Measures Day / World Metrology Day -- anniversary of the treaty in 1875 which established the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Sevres, France

World Autoimmune Arthritis Day -- The International Foundation for Autoimmune Arthritis sponsors an online virtual convention in all time zones around the world 

*"One evening the King will say, "Oh, Liza, old thing,

I want all of England your praises to sing,

Next week on the twentieth of May,

I proclaim Liza Doolittle Day."

Birthdays Today:

Tahmoh Penikett, 1975

Tony Stewart, 1971

Tony Goldwyn, 1960

Bronson Pinchot, 1959

Ronald Prescott Reagan, 1958

David Paterson, 1954

Cher, 1946

Joe Cocker, 1944

Stan Mikita, 1940

Anthony Zerbe, 1936

George Gobel, 1919

Jimmy Stewart, 1908

Henri Julien Felix Rousseau, 1844

William Fargo, 1818

John Stuart Mill, 1806

Honore de Balzac, 1799

Dolly Madison, 1768

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Elegie für junge Liebende / Elegy for Young Lovers(Opera), 1961

Norman Rockwell's First Saturday Evening Post Cover, 1916

Today in History:

The first Ecumenical Council in the Christian Church, the Council of Nicea, opens, 325

An earthquake kills about 300,000 people in Syria and Antiochia, 526

John Cabot sets sail from Bristol, England, on his ship  Matthew looking for a route to the west, 1497

Cartographer  Abraham Ortelius issues the first modern atlas, 1570

Shakespeare's Sonnets  are first published in London, 1609

Napoleon Bonaparte reinstates slavery in the French colonies, revoking its abolition in the French Revolution, 1802

Otto is named the first modern king of Greece, 1835

HMS Erebus and HMS Terror with 134 men under John Franklin sail from the River Thames in England, beginning a disastrous expedition to find the Northwest Passage in which all hands are lost, 1845

U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act into law, 1862

Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a U.S. patent for blue jeans with copper rivets, 1873

The Triple Alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy is formed, 1882

Krakatoa begins to erupt (the volcano's final and most notable explosion will occur on August 26), 1883

The first public display of Thomas Edison's prototype kinetoscope, 1891

Cuba gains independence from the United States, 1902

The Saturday Evening Post publishes its first cover with a Norman Rockwell painting ("Boy with Baby Carriage"), 1916

Montreal, Quebec radio station XWA broadcasts the first regularly scheduled radio programming in North America, 1920

By the Treaty of Jedda, the United Kingdom recognizes the sovereignty of King Ibn Saud in the Kingdoms of Hejaz and Nejd, which later merge to become the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 1927

At 07:52 Charles Lindbergh takes off from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, New York, on the world's first solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean, 1927

Amelia Earhart takes off from Newfoundland to begin the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean by a female pilot, 1932

In a referendum in Quebec, the population rejects by a 60% vote the proposal from its government to move towards independence from Canada, 1980

First publications of the discovery of the HIV virus that causes AIDS in the journal Science by Luc Montagnier and Robert Gallo individually, 1983

The Chinese authorities declare martial law in the face of pro-democracy demonstrations, setting the scene for the Tiananmen Square massacre, 1989

In a second referendum in Quebec, the population rejects by a slight majority the proposal from its government to move towards independence from Canada, 1995

The independence of East Timor is recognized by Portugal, formally ending 23 years of Indonesian rule and 3 years of provisional UN administration (Portugal itself is the former colonizer of East Timor until 1976), 2002

Scientists at the Craig J. Venter Institute announce they have successfully created the world's first artificial lifeform by transplanting a synthesized genome into an existing cell, 2010

Some of the largest fines ever levied, totaling US$5.7bn, are handed out to the major world banks JPMorgan, Barclays, Citigroup, RBS, and USB, for manipulation of currency markets, 2015