It was Super Tuesday, and I made a special trip into town to vote.
Because ya can’t not care.
I snagged a convenient parking spot, and the cars let me cross at the crosswalk.
An old guy on the way out held the door for me on my way in, and the line was short. Just me, actually, and about 10 town staff. They found my name under R-Z, and all was in order, so they gave me a ballot, and I got me a booth, and I voted my conscience.
And when I was done, I went to feed my ballot into the voting machine, and it said:
“Paper Jam” and it wouldn’t take my vote.
I leaned in for a closer look, and the Tabulator Guy standing nearby says
“Ah ahh ahh!” and I pulled back and pointed at the problem.
“Oh sh*t!” he says, and he scurried off to look for the boss, leaving me with the jammed voting machine and about 10 pair of eyes, um, watching my back.
The Boss shows up and it’s not her first rodeo. She un-jammed it like a pro, handed me the mangled ballot, and went back to work.
So now I’m standing there with 2 ballots in my hand, and the Tabulator Guy is looking really sad and unhappy, and I couldn’t help it. I burst out laughing.
We ran the mangled ballot through the machine first.
And then we ran mine.
And then I headed out.
And then the Sticker Lady chased me down in the hallway to give me an ‘I Voted’ sticker. And she held the door open for me on my way out.
And the cars let me cross at the crosswalk.
USA!
It’s getting to be spring time, and we had a spring snow storm.
8-10″ of heavy, wet snow. No big deal, but you want to stay off the roads for a day or so after one of these things, if you can. And I did, but sooner or later, you gotta go to town.
I usually do a minimal job of digging out my truck. Hood and windows, of course, but the snow load on the roof will slide off by itself, so why bother? I headed into town.
I got to the turn at the top of the hill, and I could see that there were 3 police cars and a bunch of people milling about at the house on the left, so I geared down the hill and tapped the brakes near the crowd, and – whump! – the snow load on my roof slid in one big chunk onto my windshield and wedged itself stuck in my wiper well. I couldn’t see a thing.
I was blind, doing 20 miles an hour downhill on a curve on a 2 lane road, with ditches on either side, and coming up on a crowd of cops. Not a good time to over-think it.
I steered an imaginary curve while I braked to a hard stop in the middle of the road. I got out, cleared my windshield, got back in, waved to the cops, and casually got the hell outta there. I went to town.
It’s getting to be spring time (still), and we had a(nother) spring snow storm.
About a foot this time, of heavy, wet snow, and the weather report said nothing about it until, like, a day and a half before. Or maybe I should pay attention.
So this time, Mary is out of town, and I am installing her bathtub in her absence, and I am, of course, in dire need of plumbing fittings.
It’s been coming down all night, and it’s not letting up all day. I dressed for the occasion and I headed into the storm, in the general direction of Town.
I don’t know what peoples’ problem is: All you gotta do is put ‘er in 4 wheel drive and go slow. What can go wrong?
Nothing went wrong. I went to town and back, and I plumbed the day away.
Pressure test
There was a time when Kohler meant quality, and when I ordered a Kohler sink and tub for the new bathroom, I figured installation would be smooth sailing.
As if.
The sink arrived in good shape, but it turned out to have an irregular edge where the enamel sat on the counter. It looked like a foundry worker in India took one pass too many with a big grinder, and gouged out a chunk. I sent it back, and build.com was real good about it, but the replacement sink had the same problem. This time, at least, the gouge was in the back edge where it would be hard to see, so I just kept it.
The tub, though. Jesus!
I drilled the holes for the valves right where the instructions said to do it, and the surface on the backside had an acrylic ridge, about 1/2″ high, where the resin had squoze out at the factory. Right in the middle of the valve holes!
It was impossible to secure the nuts holding the valves in place, and I spent half the afternoon on my hands and knees, levelling out the surface with a chisel and a Dremel tool, swearing like a sailor.
Plus, the brass for the faucet interfered with the overflow housing, and if I didn’t have a machine shop in the basement, I couldn’t have done it.
Come on!
Finally.