Weekend!
I am not a handyman. Like, not even close. I know which side of the hammer is the claw but I don’t know the name of the hitty part. Googling tells me that it is called “the face”. I was worried that it was called the “peen” because I remembered “ball-peen hammers” but then I got all giggly and hoped that I wasn’t going to use that particular term in a post. Whew.
Anyway, when it rains it pours, and there were multiple kitchen-related issues that all happened at the same freakin’ time. The garbage disposal got a crack in it and the faucet started leaking. I was stuck there thinking “how in the heck do I fix these things?”
A million years ago, there was a book that came out called “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”. Any philosophy major of a certain age will tell you that this book is his or her bête noire. It is one of two things mentioned when the phil major said “I’m a phil major!” (The other thing mentioned would usually be a question about french fries.) Anyway, in the book, there is a very important section devoted to mental blocks that said something to the effect of “I don’t know how to do this, therefore I am helpless.” It talked about the process of walking from that starting place to the destination of “this is connected to that, which is connected to that other thing, which is connected to this other thing over here. The fact that I didn’t know doesn’t mean that it was difficult to understand.”
Which brings me back to staring at the mess of pipes and tubes under the sink.
So I got to Home Depot and pick up a garbage disposal. Reading the back of the box, I notice that I will have to install my own electrical connection so we can plug it in. Wait… what? Is this Europe in the 1970’s???
So I get the stuff home and, luckily, I have Maribou there to open the directions and read them aloud as we walk through the amateur electrician stuff and have her confirm that this wire is the smooth wire and that wire is the ribbed wire and, yes, the wires are not pinched after we install the protective plate and, with her help, we get the new and improved (MORE POWER! YOU CAN PUT AN WHOLE ORANGE IN THERE!) garbage disposal into place.
Just in time to notice that the faucet is leaking. And so we play the game a second time. BUT! AND HERE IS THE POINT! If you have a Maribou (Or, in the absence of a Maribou, have read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance), then it’s possible to look at a maze of impossible-to-understand things and get from “I don’t know how to do this, therefore I am helpless” to “DUDE WE FIXED THE KITCHEN!”
So… what’s on your docket?
(Photo is “Footrace finish line, 1925” from the Seattle Municipal Archives, used under a creative commons license.)
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snooki weight lossDressing the Family for the Holidays
I have very, very fond memories of ZatAoMM. Very fond. I never asked Philosophy majors about it, though, for the simple reason that I don’t know very many. Such it is to be a STEM geek. Besides, it didn’t seem to have much to do with the sorts of things they had me read when I took Philosophy 101.Report
Pirsig called having the energy to figure stuff out “gumption”. Gotta love that.Report
This.Report
To truly fix the kitchen, you take the garbage disposal out.
Seriously, they’re prone to breaking.
And when was the last time you used it anyway?
(retracting if you use it daily, instead of a composter)Report
This one has 3/4ths of a horsepower. The old one only had a 1/2 horsepower.
That’s a quarter of a horse.
And we use it a couple of times a week.
(Our part of Colorado is too dry for us to compost.)Report
Well, you can do it, but you have to water your compost bin, which makes Colorado the place where it’s dumb to water your lawn but perfectly ok to water your garbage.Report
What is on my docket for this weekend is NOT FIXING THE KITCHEN since we did that lat weekend. I am sure the usual chores, etc, will take place.
Oh, and Sunday, Dman’s wife and I are going to marathon all the Librarian movies and then watch the first episode of the new show.Report
This evening we head out to Mr. T’s family’s place, maybe ice some cookies, sleep. Tomorrow is a Christmas-ish party with that extended family, then sleep again.
Sunday, we come back home, Fledermaus has a dance show, we collapse in exhaustion.
Monday I get up ungodly early to go most of the way back to where Mr. T’s family lives for an all day meeting with our extended work team – a meeting of enough people that I have to actively restrain my cynicism about its actually get anything done.Report
6-year old, watching my undergrad school play my graduate school (and rooting for the former to absolutely destroy the latter, as they did Kansas), and reading.
Speaking of philosophy majors, in fact, have you read McTaggart’s The Nature of Existence? I’m making my way through now, and like Schopenasshole’s WW&R, it is a clear and inspiring read, full of stuff that I will never agree with but find so wonderful that I wish I did. And you can get it free online, ’cause it’s old.Report
I saw the trailer for the movie but dismissed it. I’ll give it a re-look.Report
I’m just glad that game happened in December and not in March.Report
(Er…I guess it happened in November, but still…)Report
The kids’ cousins are coming over tomorrow, so a house full of screaming children.
Black Mirror marathon, with any luck.Report
@glyph
I am slightly amused that you refer to them as the kid’s cousins instead of as your nieces and nephews.Report
The wife and I will be doing the one thing we swore we would never do…
Putting up Xmas lights!
That and getting a tree.
Oh, and @jaybird if you have any other electrical questions, shoot me an email, as I love that stuff, and am good at it.Report
We put up interior decorations last weekend, so I need to do lights/exterior this weekend.Report
Solar powered, or off the main panel?Report
Shoot, you guys are fancy. I just plug them in.Report
@aaron-david, What I would like to do most in my life is change out the ceiling lamps (they use those dinky little golfball lightbulbs) in my basement for human sized ones.
I worry about how difficult that would end up being.Report
@jaybird
Not really that different from changing the garbage disposal. You are basically putting in another lamp, and everything will be in the wall/ceiling already to go, just like the GD. Main things would be to make sure that the base would cover the mountings, but everything is standardized now, so unless your home is older (prewar) it should mate up easily. The biggest problem would be that if there is no natural light in the basement you will need to rig something up (you will have to turn off the power at the switch at the least) and if they are on the ceiling you will have to work around having the fixture hanging from the power cords. Be very careful with safety, and enjoy!Report
Tonight, burning the annual Xmas CD that I send out as a Christmas card. This year’s high(?)light is Fruitcake by The Superions.
Tomorrow, going to see Nick Lowe do his Quality Holiday Revue with some friends.
Sunday, church and a sing along Messiah, which is just about the most ridiculous piece of music ever written.Report
@slade-the-leveler, dude, I would love to hear a review of the Revue.Report
Topnotch! These guys opened as a duo. http://youtu.be/K42tl6LpcX8
Lowe came out and played some solo acoustic guitar, and then his backing band, LOS STRAITJACKETS!!!!, came out and tore the place up. Man, those guys are good.
A nice mix of tunes from his Christmas record from last year, and the usual suspects (Cruel to Be Kind, I Knew the Bride….).
Here’s one of the Xmas tunes: http://youtu.be/oiSf083QM_U
If this tour swings through your ville get out and see it. You won’t be disappointed.Report
Dickens Fair for the first time. I think I will either find it strangely enjoyable or highly regret the idea.Report
I’m getting over the sniffles, as is the little girl.
The big mission is going to be to try to get some food into her. She was on hunger strike for part of last week, for reasons unknown. Right about when she seemed to be snapping out of it, she started getting sick and it started all over again. She hasn’t eaten regularly in over a week. Oddly, I find myself more worried about it than my wife, when she is usually the worrier.
I’m getting caught up on some TV shows. I’m listening to the worst audiobook ever recorded (the story is fine, the narrating is just the worst), but I hope to get into all this on the Sunday post.Report
As a friend once told me, with the first child you’re never quite sure if they’ll starve to death overnight if they don’t eat their mashed potatoes.Report
Got home late tonight from a week in Hartford,CT for work. I ate a lot of delicious meals (gotta love that corporate card) but now I feel the need to detox. Salad and more salad. Got to learn to either eat healthier on business trips or visit the hotel gym more often.
UFC 181 tomorrow night should be awesome. Need to put ip the outside xmas lights if it ever stops raining.Report
This weekend is my annual “just me” retreat.
This year, I am staying semi-local and holing up at the Edgefield, a hotel/winery/brewery/distillery that has (according to Bon Appetit) one of the country’s best farm-to-table restaurants, several pub grub eateries, and about a dozen different bars, all different but all very rustic — most heated by either very old fireplaces or wood burning stoves.
It’s pretty damn awesome so far.Report
Spent one day taking care of the granddaughter this week. Nap time was a battle. She ate her peas at supper by stabbing them individually with the little kid sized fork — I don’t remember either of my kids with that level of fine-motor skill at 15 months.Report