What a Drip!

I did manage to fall back asleep (finally) and woke up at 9:00 AM. However, my sleep was filled with troubling dreams.

I was just getting into my morning routine when my daughter Melissa called. We talked until after 12:00 PM! So, finally I had my breakfast: a heavily salted grapefruit and a cup of fresh coffee. I turned on the Olympics and watched Poland get its first woman's gold medal ever (it was in a long distance skiing event). Oh, I ate an entire clump of red grapes while I was at it... Look at me, Mr. Natural!

After that, I figured it was time to fix the kitchen faucet. Now, my friend B___'s trick was to grip the wrench higher up the handle, so as not to put so much torque/pressure and break the valve stem. But, that didn't work. I couldn't get the damn thing started. So, I switched to a modified version I made up on the spot. I got a deep well socket (like you would use on a sparkplug), pushed it down with one hand and turned the socket itself with the other. Bingo! When I couldn't turn it anymore by hand, I got the wrench and turned it one quarter more.

I turned on the in-line valve and... it worked!!! I got my sink back!!!

After I put the faucet handle, etc. back on, I went to replace the stuff under the sink. That's when I noticed the drips coming from the shut off valve...

Groan...

Desperate now, I called my friend back. He suggested that the age of the plumbing, combined with me turning it on and off repeatedly during the last few days, meant that I either needed to replace the rubber washer (meaning I had to shut off the water to the entire house) or to turn the nut holding the shut-off valve a quarter or a half turn to seat it again.

So, I gingerly held onto the copper plumbing and gave the nut a quarter turn. Damn! It stopped dripping!! I covered the entire bottom of the sink with paper towels (the easiest way to look for drips) and will check it Sunday morning.

Spent emotionally, I went in to watch the nightly news after taking out the leftover mashed potatoes to come up to room temperature.

When the potatoes were warm, I made them into potato cakes using my first wife Fran's recipe. The chives were a nice "oniony" touch.

I went in and watched the Olympics for a while. My favorite event was the four-man bobsled, which US took the gold medal. Speaking of medals, while the US had the largest number of overall medals (Canada is or was fourth) I couldn't help notice that Canada has the largest numbers of just gold medals. I suppose I'll never hear the end of that...