We Have Shower Capabilities and Other Randomness

After two days and countless trips to Home Depot, buying parts, returning parts, buying parts, returning parts, we have the ability to once again take a shower. You don't know how much you depend on something until it's broken, let me tell you. And, it's a good thing that Keith knows plumbing, or we would have spent THOUSANDS instead of 'only' next week's grocery budget on this little repair. Being without a shower was almost like the day we spent without a toilet, but not quite as bad. The day without a toilet is a whole other story, though.

Here is our $85.00 faucet, which was one of the cheap ones, believe it or not.


It is all wet because I just finished taking my first shower in a day or two.

This is the other side of the wall, where it was necessary to cut a hole in order to get to the pipes and all so that the guts of the faucet could be replaced.

Keith installed shut off valves so that next time the faucet needs replacing he won't have to shut off water to the whole house. This hole will eventually be covered up with a removable panel so that next time he won't have to cut another hole in the wall.

This repair took a long long time, with parts having to be cut, soldered, gooped, tightened, the piece of wood added to screw the whole mess to so that it wouldn't just be flopping around inside the wall. A long time, like two evenings worth, and Keith didn't get to take his shower until around midnight last night. And, as he was taking his shower, I noticed water spraying out from the hole in the wall because he forgot to tighten one nut.

Then, after working on the shower until midnight, he had to get up at 4 am this morning to go to work. I was trying to convince him to call in exhausted and not go to work today, but they don't have sick pay and he already used up his vacation days and we really can't afford for him to miss a day's pay. So, off he went in the dark this morning. But, at least he was clean.

My new bra is very uncomfortable. I got one that is cotton but it has the underwires and side support and all and it feels almost as if it is made of iron rather than cotton. So, that was a waste of $15.00 there.

Poor Harri the cat is so stressed out from Buddy and Lucy tormenting her by chasing her around the house that she has started to vomit whenever she sees them even thinking about stalking her. I've been trying to keep the squirt bottle handy so that I can spray them when I see that 'let's get Harri' look in their eyes.

They did a study that shows that texting while driving is dangerous. Duh. Why they have to pay someone to do a study of the obvious is beyond me. Do you think that this study will convince people to stop texting while driving? Maybe I should convince them to pay me to do a study on whether or not people give a crap that they are endangering other people's lives by texting while driving.

I need to go clean house, now. Not that I have any ambition to do much of anything these days, but at least I can take a shower after I get all sweaty from cleaning the house.

Today Will be a Sweat Free Day

I am going to take it very very easy today and not do too much moving around or going outside into the heat. I don't want to sweat today because our shower is broken!

Here's the story. Yesterday I did a lot of cleaning, vacuuming the house, dusting all the books and knick knacks in the living room, and then scrubbing and cleaning all the cabinets and appliances in the kitchen. Which makes me sweat. A lot. So much sweat that the scrunchie rubber band thing holding back my hair was sopping wet. Housework on a hot day just plain old makes me sweat a lot.
So, I took a nice cool shower at about 1pm yesterday. Then Keith came home and we had to run a couple of errands. Even riding in an air conditioned car makes me sweat when it's hot outside.

Then I had to fix dinner, which makes me sweat because of the hot stove and all, and I was doing a stir fry so I kind of had to hover over the hot stove. Even eating the dinner makes me sweat when it's hot outside.

After dinner I went over to Target because I have been living in the same five worn out bras for two years now and I really needed a new bra. I also wanted to look for a shirt to wear because I have also been living in the same 4 or 5 summer shirts for the past two years and they are getting really gross with sweat stained underarms because I, you know, SWEAT so damn much!

So, I found a bra and a couple of t-shirts to try on, which also makes me sweat and I really hate trying on clothes but hate having to return things that I didn't try on, get home to try on, and find they look like crap or don't fit. So, more sweating in the Target dressing room.

Back home and time for another shower. As I'm turning off the shower, the whole handle COMES OFF IN MY HAND! EEEK!

Keith spent an hour taking the handle thing apart to see if he'll be able to just buy parts to fix the handle, but of course everything is all messed up inside the handle so it will be a huge time consuming replacing the whole guts of the shower faucet type thing. Repairs around this house are never simple and end up taking hours and hours. He's going to have to cut a hole in the wall to get to all the plumbing to fix the handle.

We discussed the possibility of showering in the back yard with the hose, but I'm not sure that I want to stand naked in the back yard and shower with cold water from the hose, so I'm going to do my best not to sweat today and am hoping that he will be able to fix the shower sometime this evening. At least the toilet still works.