July 23, 2009

6:32 a.m.

Thursday, the New Friday

I'm looking forward to my three day weekend, busy though it will be. Friday mornings are wonderful because everyone else goes to work. I have the house to myself, I can sleep in and putter, and slow down my mind to plan what I'll accomplish over the weekend.

We had very good fortune with the pipe yesterday, on account of Marc borrowing a bigger, better, louder, faster cement drill from a coworker. In half an hour he had drilled a bunch of holes through the foundation around the stuck piece of pipe, and knocked the whole thing through with a couple of good blows from a three-pound hammer. Now there's a nice hole into the basement, through which the new pipe and joint will fit nicely. It took so little time that we went to Home Depot to get all the replacement pieces. These included a couple of 10' lengths of four-inch wide pvc pipe, one of which jumped ship around a tight left turn on the way home. I had to hop out and retrieve it, and just as we were driving off we saw somebody else's section of plumbing pipe just down the embankment. It must be the turn where pipes try to escape.

So we're expecting to finish that job tonight. Cut pipes, assemble pieces, wrap with Fernco -- these sort of rubber sleeves that keep the pipe-ends sealed together -- and seal the concrete around the new pipe entry. I should have running water tonight.

Then it's about tamping down the dirt under the outside pipe so that it won't settle once we've covered it all up again.

I expect tomorrow night I'll move back into my house, rudimentary conditions and all.

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We found a cooktop from a camper in the basement, and will see if that still works. M&R have a spare little propane tank from their grill, so we could set that up in the kitchen or mudroom and I could do some light cooking. I scrubbed the kitchen floor so that room smells considerably better now, and also pulled out the ancient, damp rug section from the little entryway, which was the last bastion of stinkiness in the house. I haven't even cleaned the floor under it yet and the improvement is vast. We also brought up a pair of old but fine hedge clippers left in my basement and oiled them up. They work fine, though there is no safety around the cutting part and I will have to be VERY careful to keep my fingers away. But they will make the work around the stone wall go much faster.

The poison ivy is well on the way to healing -- I'm stopping the Pred today and will go back to a more normal state of mind -- and I feel really good about where we are with all the work. We can finish clearing out R&M's old house this weekend, too, so THAT will be completely off the plate. In a couple of weeks we're going to see a local production of Cinderella. Our coworker who lent us the cement drill does sound for this company, and special effects, and their shows are reputed to be very good. Can't wait! I haven't done something extracurricular like that in ages.

Now, off to work. Must solder.