Snowball Effect

I had mentioned at the end of my water heater post that I would likely be installing a new faucet in the bathroom. I did.

After I had installed the water heater I was talking to my friend who had recently bought the house mentioned in the Halloween post from last year. It's an old house, and the plumbing hasn't been updated. He mentioned how often one repair project will snowball into having to do something else, or more than you had intended.

We had a very basic single handle faucet that I'd put in years ago, and I know I'd replaced the cartridge one time. It had corroded around the base to where it had a couple low level holes on the base, so there was really no excuse to keep it. We spent quite a while looking at different styles, and finally settled on another single handle unit with a higher spout. It's installable with a 3-hole sink, or a single hole sink. With the 3-hole, as we have, it gets an oval plate that covers the other 2 holes. It was in stock, and as a bonus, it comes with a new, pop up drain (handy, since the old one had the pull stopper style).

The faucet installation was incredibly easy, and I was thrilled with how it came out!!! The new drain, though...

First of all, the old one was a pain to get out. You have to unscrew it from the chrome flange in the sink, and naturally it didn't want to come. Ended up bending the edge of it up, and got it's number. Hard part is over, right??? Went to put the new one in, and the threaded portion goes through with not much trouble, but it wouldn't go all the way down, stopping a couple of inches short. I tried to force the issue, but it wasn't working. I saw how it was looking chewed up at the end of the threads, and noticed it looked a little larger. Pulled out my calipers, and sure enough, the shank past the threads is an even 0.100” larger!!! What the hell??? I got the box and receipt together and took it back to the store to see if anything can be done. I had a feeling all of them are going to be like that. Of course, I wasn't taking the faucet part back, it's fine. The guy who helped me was great, since the kit wasn't complete, he said I could buy another, swap the drain and then return the whole thing. Of course, I was going to just check it before I got into all that, and as suspected, they have the same thing. Looked at the stand alone drains, and all pop ups have the same design, as did the pull rod type. They had ones with a grate that had the same size all the way up, but no. I took my new old box and drain and walked right out.

I considered buying a whole new sink bowl (maybe one with a single hole!!! And ours is a little worn looking, not terrible though) but I'm already way further into this than I wanted. I headed home, pulled out my little die grinder and went to work on the drain hole. It scattered brown dust everywhere, and stank, but I eventually got it hogged out enough for the wider portion, and after a little clean up, it went together without any more hitches.

Glad to be done with that!!!

How I Spent My Birthday

I've mentioned before, back when I started at my job they used to give you your birthday off, or a day near it. It was only a few years in that they did away with that, but gave us an extra day off. I've kept the tradition!!!

One of my favorite things to do, that I don't actually do very often, is to go to the beach. My younger as well enjoys it, and recently he's gone with some of his friends.

Here's a place that I've known of for just about most of my life, the beaches of Alamitos Bay in Long Beach. My dad would take his boats down there and launch them near Marine Stadium for whatever excursion we embarked upon, and I had an Aqua Cat catamaran that we would put in the back of my parents' station wagon or truck, disassembled, and set up on the shore of the beaches nearest the isthmus between it and the beach of Long Beach harbor. Also had been to Mother's Beach, just down from Marine Stadium, a few times.

I generally prefer an actual ocean facing beach with surf. This area is blocked by the breakwater of Long Beach harbor, and is even further back than that, so there's nearly no surf. The area his friend likes is called Horny Corner. I've heard that it was originally Hornay Corner, after Belmont Shores developer Thomas Hornay. Who knows, but you know a name like that is going to stick!!!

Another thing I'm not a fan of is the parking situation in the area. Belmont Shores is notoriously bad for parking, but on a weekday we were able to find street parking with no problem. We set up on the beach, then mostly soaked in the water for most of the time we were there!!! When we were getting ready to depart, we discussed how we were going to do it. The boy was thinking he could stay with the stuff, and we could take turns going to the showers a short way down and changing in the restrooms. I said we could just take the whole bag and both change, then get our beach chairs on the way back. We changed, then headed back on the sidewalk to keep from sanding up our shoes, made it most of the way back to the car, and remembered we'd forgotten to get the chairs!!! For the record, I saw nothing that made me especially horny at Horny Corner.

Afterwards we got some lunch at Taco Bell, where I had just heard they have a $7 Luxe Cravings box with a chalupa, double decker taco supreme, and 7-layer beefy burrito, plus chips and cheese and a drink. A lot of food for a little money!!!

In addition to all that, a few days previous we got together for a celebration at my mom's house. My sister's birthday and mine are only a couple weeks apart, so we nearly always anymore observe them both on the same day. Sometimes barbecue, sometimes out to eat, this time pizzas and sides, as well as some soak time in her pool. I had mentioned German Black Forest cake, and my wife found a recipe for Black Forest brownies!!! They were a big hit!!!

Positive Charge

It's been a long while since I had been to a concert, but I took care of that last week!!! The last time I'd been, it was Brian Fallon, the frontman for The Gaslight Anthem, who had been on hiatus for a while. Well, they got back together and put out an album at the beginning of the year, and have been touring in support of it!!!

It was at the Greek Theater in Griffith Park, probably one of the closest venues to my house. I like it, especially in the evening in the warm months. The parking, not so much for the most part. I had a few times when I've gotten tickets from my work, and they have included a parking pass, which makes it better, but otherwise they stack park you on the grass. I took the younger, it was the first concert he's been to.

I figured there would be an opening act, but I didn't look into it any. Turns out there were two!!! First up was Dirty Nil, from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, a factoid they mentioned a few times. It was a trio, and they sounded pretty good, nice rocking tunes, and they looked the part. Truth be told, both opening acts sounded better than a LOT of the stuff they play on the radio these days!!!

Second was Joyce Manor. Didn't mention, I got tickets on the side terrace, in the second row from the front, directly opposite where I was when I saw Counting Crows there. The old lady who was ushering that area said they are great seats, in her opinion better than the opposite side!!! Anyway, those seats have 4 seats in the row. We had the row to ourselves for Dirty Nil, but a couple showed up for Joyce Manor. The girl, Mary, had heard of them before and knew a lot of the songs. Mary was the kind of person you want around when you're at a concert!!! Joyce Manor sounds very punk, the singer mentioned they had gotten rid of all their CD's except The Offspring and another group in their teens (but kept a cassette of another group) but they didn't sound very Offspring, actually reminded me a bit of Rancid. One of their songs was called “Catalina Fight Song”, and you know I like Catalina!!!

Before The Gaslight Anthem came out, they brought down the lights, and started playing “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” over the PA, then pulled that down and went right into “45”. When it would get to the part of the chorus where it goes “Whoah-Oh-Oh”, they brought up the lights on the audience, who would sing along and pump their fists. Good start!!!

After that they went into “Handwritten”, then “The Patient Ferris Wheel” (which, as it turns out, was the first that the boy recognized!!! Thought he knew 'em better than that!!!)

Following those, they broke out a couple from their latest album, “Little Fires” and “Weatherman”, then back to some classic stuff for the next three, then, “since we're in L.A.”, they covered the Chili Peppers' “Soul to Squeeze”, a pretty close to the album version.

I took the close up of Brian Fallon to get a picture of the bass drum head, I have no idea who that's supposed to be a picture of!!!

The complete setlist was as follows:

1. 45

2. Handwritten

3. The Patient Ferris Wheel

4. Little fires

5. Weatherman

6. Film Noir

7. Bring it On

8. Here's Looking at You, Kid

9. Soul to Squeeze (Red Hot Chili Peppers Cover)

10. Positive Charge

11. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

12. Miles Davis and the Cool

13. Keepsake

14. American Slang

15. Mulholland Drive

16. Autumn

17. Michigan 1975

18. Mae

19. Great Expectations

20. The 59 Sound 

I thought it was a great show, just about all you could hope for!!! The boy enjoyed it as well. Sure, there's always a few songs you wish they had included (for the record, both times I've seen Brian Fallon now, the cover songs he's done haven't been ones that I particularly care for!!!) but they played a lot of my highly ranked songs, and some of the good ones off the new album (could have also gone for the title track of the new album, “History Books”)!!!

An interesting post script, the time noted above where I saw Counting Crows there, I had one of Janices' famous starter issues. Nothing like that while we were there this time, but the very next evening Kutcher had a no start issue, like the battery was almost completely dead. Put it on the boost function of a large charger, and nothing. Ran said large charger for about 15 minutes, and boosted it again, and still nothing. Called for roadside assistance, and the guy came out with a portable booster, and that fired it right up... but it died the moment he took it off. Boosted it again, and it fired right up, and as long as I had it revved up some, it worked, but as soon as I let off, it died again. The guy concurred that it sounded like the battery had a sudden failure, likely a dead cell. I've still got most of a year of warranty on it, but this was also right at the time that all the AutoZones are closing for the night. I let it go, and the next afternoon after work (this was the last week of our once-a-month in office for 3 days, starting is September it'll be every week in office for 3 days... I wasn't going to be out late, then have to get up at 4 AM to go in, so I took that day off, leaving only 1 day I had to go in for the win!!!) I yanked the battery out and took it to the AutoZone. The guy checks it, and it shows 100% charged and good battery. Huh, maybe it had something to do with that crusty looking positive terminal, which didn't want to even come undone when it was on the battery, and looked like it was developing a crack near the bolt when I got it twisted off!!! Bought a couple new terminals, wire brushed the heck out of the contacts and wires, and all was good!!!

I need a spark, I need a positive charge indeed!!!

Kutcher Swallows a Water Heater

Welcome to the season of blogging very much!!!

On Monday afternoon my wife was doing the dishes, and she says, “Why isn't the water warming up??” Huh. I've heard this kind of thing before...

Down to the basement I go, and sure enough, it's wet on the floor around the water heater. Not a lot, I've seen worse, but bad enough to put out the pilot light. I tried re firing it, and it came on for a moment, but wouldn't stay going. Back upstairs, I dig through my warranty file, thinking it was a while ago, but not that long. Thought I had a 10 year warranty, but that was wishful thinking, it was only 6. Now, when did I buy it??? Here's where there's a practical application for blogging!!!

When I first did the math in my head, I'd thought it was just about 7 months out of warranty, but it's actually 2 years and 7 months. Shopped around that night and ordered the same brand, but with a 12 year warranty. Not making that mistake again!!! Or rather, I'm paying the extra $300 to get one with twice the warranty. I'd also broke loose the water inlet and outlet pipes, and ran a hose out to the street and started it draining.

I don't think I've made mention recently, but I'm back on the weekend shift for a little more than a year now. When I'd started doing this shift, it was 4 hours on Saturdays, and Tuesday through Friday for 9 hours a day. Once again, they bump your pay some for doing the weekend shift, but in my current role, it's a good amount more than when I was filling. Found out after I'd started, when the company has a paid holiday and it falls on a day you have as your day off... they give you your day off. No extra, no you get to take a different day off. I voiced my view on it and was told, “Oh, it all evens out!” SO, for Memorial Day, Labor Day, and both Christmas and New Years I got boned. When the time came around this year, I had a couple of requests. First, can I get a different day off, either Tuesday or Wednesday, and is it possible to start my Saturday shift later. I had been starting on Saturday afternoons at 3:00, and it put a time crimp in the afternoons sometimes, I asked to start later, up to 6:00 PM, and they came through with starting at 5:00, and so far (2 weekends thus far) I've liked it fine. And, long story short, now I have Tuesdays off!!!

The younger and I got in the wife's Matrix and headed over to pick up the new water heater. Took a bunch of rope, being unsure how it would fit. Slid the front seats all the way forward, and it slid right in , and the hatch closed without issue!!! If Scruffy can do it, then so can the Kutch!!! (None of us ever call it Kutcher, it's always the Toyota or the Matrix) Will It Fit: Matrix Edition part II!!! Driving back was a challenge, though, I was so far forward I couldn't really move my right foot over to the brake, so I was 2-footing it!!!

The younger and I were able to move it around fairly easily, the hardest part was the 4 steps from the street to the foot of the house. The box had instructions to cut along a dotted line around an inch up from the bottom, so that's what I did, and from there was able to roll it on the edge of the base pretty easy. The removal of the old one was easier this time, too, it seemed to have drained most every drop by having the hose attached to the drain all night. None of the fittings fought me, and about the hardest thing was locating a roll of Teflon pipe sealing tape!!! I know I had more that I'd bought from my work, but I found a roll that may have come with our house, so over 25 years old, but it worked just fine!!!

When I had gotten up on Tuesday (actually before I got out of bed) I had the thought that I should take the aerators off the kitchen and bathroom sinks, since having the water off gets a bunch of air in the lines, and it seems to knock a lot of crud loose when it comes back on. Didn't do it, and the bathroom one ended up nearly plugged. It didn't come off easy, but I flowed good once I got it off and cleaned out... but it kind of ovaled from the removal, and it seems like it's leaking down the inside now. Might be able to get it fixed up, but I'll probably be installing a new faucet soon.