Outed by the plumber!!

Good grief -- how many days am I going to have before I can actually have a quiet day to myself? 

I managed to get some paperwork done in the morning, but not before someone called with something they needed, and I wanted to get it out of the way. I worked on that on and off throughout the day, and I managed to get it done last night. Someone else emailed me because they were having sewing machine problems. I sent a few emails back, but then I got an email that they used AI to diagnose their problem. Then I got a phone call I needed to take, which required several follow-up emails. 

What about my distribution lists? What about my sewing? It was a crazy sort of day, and while I got work done, it wasn't quite the work I wanted to do! 

Here's a really good piece of advice that I learned from Sara at Sewingmastery.com. She gets emails all the time from people who need help with their sewing machine. Her suggestion: Google your problem first and then, if you can't find the solution, call a friend! Google is amazing these days, and you don't need to use ChatGPT. I'm shocked at how many "older" people are using that. Just Google it. WAIT ---we can't use Google these days because they are idiots!!! But you get the picture. Go to YouTube -- there is always an answer on YouTube.

While I love AI, I don't. I think we are wasting a huge amount of time and money on having AI create pretty pictures for us!!! 

One distribution list (40 Shades of Grey) is out the door, along with all the information emails. I'm working on the other three, and they need to go out today!!! That was my priority yesterday and is still my priority this morning. It all just takes time, and with all the interruptions, it was hard to work!!! 

WAIT -- there is good news. There will be a SECOND session for the scrap quilt class I'm running at Thimbles and Things. I'll get the new dates to the store today, so watch for that in her newsletter this week. 

BUT I managed to get some sewing done. 

The first thing I did was to audition the brown versus the green fabric. 

Auditioning the green and the brown

You know what? I'm good with the brown. I didn't find enough brown for the inner border and the binding, but I'm in a make-do mode, and the two browns won't touch each other, so I'll use a different brown for the binding. 

Wait—let me explain what happened at lunch, because that threw the entire afternoon under the bus. I was sitting at the table having my lunch when I heard water running in the house. At first, I thought it was the outdoor tap, so I went to check, and everything seemed OK. I could still hear the water, but I thought I'd finish my lunch and then investigate further. 

DH came out of his office and asked if I could hear water running, so I decided to investigate then. Outside again, nothing. I went downstairs to the furnace room to check the outdoor tap located there. Nothing. But I could hear water running down the sewage pipe. OH DEAR - that is not good. 

Back upstairs to check the toilets, and YES, the toilet in the primary bedroom was running. I flushed again. It still ran. Then I checked the flap to see if it was not seated properly. It was. So I shut the water off for that toilet and called the plumber. I could have been all heroic and checked online, but I didn't have time for that. 

I was lucky because I called about noon and I was going to get a plumber that day! I ran (OK—I walked) to the mall to do my errand for the day—Seniors' Day at Bulk Barn—and I needed a couple of things. 

Back home, and that's when I got this done on Down on the Farm. 

The inner border on Down on the Farm

I was literally ironing the outer border fabric when the plumber arrived, and then the afternoon just went haywire. I don't even remember what happened while he was here. OH -- phone calls, and computer work. 

Let me tell you quickly about the plumber. I use Mr. Rooter, and I seem to have bought some membership from them years ago which allows me discount pricing, paying by the project, not by hour, a free inspection, etc. 

You never know who to expect when you answer the door. In the past, the plumbers have been older gentlemen, and usually with an accent from somewhere. Not a big deal. So imagine my surprise when I answered the door and this very young man with a nice, clear voice was standing there. At first, I thought he was part of a team. Nope -- he was alone - a plumbing technician. Not sure if that's different from a plumber. 

Anyway, he was very articulate and very nice. 

He checked out the toilet by dropping in a dye tablet to see if the flap was sealed properly. And then we checked the rest of the faucets and toilets in the house. OH shoot -- that's when I remembered that I spotted the faucet in the guest room tub was leaking. She hadn't noticed, and no one uses that bathroom now that our guest has moved out. 

Leaky faucet in the bathroom

So that required a repair job as well. The cartridge behind the tap itself caused the leak, and this tap was always hard to push and pull. Now it works like a charm. 

Now here's the embarrassing part. Michael needed to check the main water shutoff valve to the house. And OH MY -- that is where the puzzles are stored. Thank goodness I had tidied up one part of that area a couple of days ago. 

So while he waited, I had to move a "few" puzzles off this narrow box because the water shutoff valve is under it. 

The location of the water shutoff valve

Thankfully, I found homes for a few of the puzzles in a different spot because, technically, if you needed to shut off the water in a hurry, you don't want to be moving a bunch of puzzles around. 

I put a few puzzles back on the wooden box. And it looked like this. 

What remains on the shutoff valve box

But I had to move that all again when he needed to shut off the water to fix the drip in the tub. I guess that definitely means no more puzzles, as some of my hiding spaces were taken away!!!!

There was some valve in the toilet that was broken and I could replace or fix. Everyone in my area seems to be in the replace mode, so I went for a replace. This way, DH, who mostly uses this bathroom, gets a comfort-height toilet, which will be better for his knees! 

Replacing the toilet was quite an ordeal as some flange was broken at the top of the poop pipe. 

Getting a new toilet

It was a complicated job to fix, and he didn't finish until after 6:30. I couldn't even have a nap!!! He said it was the most complicated toilet he'd ever replaced in his short career. He has been a plumber for about two years. I was pretty excited to see a nice young man taking up a trade. He will be employed for life! 

Well, I tried napping when the plumber went to get a new toilet, but that didn't work because Murphy was on the main floor and she wanted something - actually, I think she was outside. And with less mobility, she is more dependent on us to get her around. Plus we block off parts of the house if we can't supervise her - mostly the stairs. 

However, I will say that she did very well yesterday in the chaos. To top it off, we had heavy rain and storms (lightning and thunder) and phone alerts going off, and she was quite calm through the entire ordeal. Poor Murphy!!!!

MOM - it's scary, but I know you will protect me!

She definitely wants to do things like her old boisterous self, but she needs help. Being her help buddy on the stairs is a physical workout! But all is good. 

After 7 PM, I finally got a chance to work on the latest jigsaw puzzle, and after my collection was outed by the plumber, I need to work faster and not buy any more. 

I pulled all the pieces for the white house and started working. 

The pieces I pulled for last night

Before I finished for the night, this is what it looked like. I'm not sure which color I'll go for next. 

Progress on the puzzle

I'm listening to a really good book at the moment, and well, I needed to know what happened, so I worked a wee bit later than I wanted, but I still got six hours of sleep, with one hour of that being deep sleep. I'll probably want a nap later today, but I'm OK with that. The book is called "This Story May Save Your Life" by Tiffany Crum. I still have three hours to go. 

And with that storm yesterday, the temperature was extremely erratic. It was beautiful in the morning once the mist dried off. And it was cool with a nice breeze. Then we had a bit of rain, and the humidity hit like a wall of water. It got humid so quickly, and it appears to be all gone this morning, but it's still damp from all the rain.  

To top the day off, I'm trying to help Dad with his computer. He and banking and the computer aren't a great combination, but he is determined to figure it out. So last night before going to bed, I sent him a bunch of pictures, and let's see what happens. I sent him one more this morning. I don't think he gets the concepts of the windows in Windows. Open a window and then minimize it. I think he only opens one program at a time and then closes it. 

OH, and I should mention that DH and I both use Shokz as an open-ear bud for audiobooks (me only), our phones, and the computer. They suck as a microphone for the computer, yet work just fine on the cell phone. Why is that? They are horrible, and so he is returning his. Then he asked if I wanted to return mine. I'm not sure returning will help—they have a technical issue, and I want one that works! So I was looking up receipts for that!! 

It's funny because when I first got mine, they worked just fine with the computer, and now we have some sort of issue. Is that more interference in our house? What the heck is with all this technology stuff? At least this time, it's not just me!!!

On that happy note, the welcoming emails are coming, and I hope to get the border on my Down on the Farm today. But first I'm off to the gym to see Brooke. 

It is going to be a GOOD day!!!!

Ciao!!!!