Cheryl
was sniffing around in one of the basement bedrooms last night and her
sensitive sniffer detected the subtle aroma of fresh-leaked gas. The kind that
makes houses blow up. It wasn't an overwhelming, pervasive scent, the kind that
brings the Energy Utility workers screaming in their red-flashing vans and
HazMat suits. It was more like a hint of chlorine in the bottle of water you
pulled out of your backpack after a ten mile hike. Annoying, but (mostly)
insignificant.
But it
was just one more little thing on top of a huge pile of things that is adding
to my stress level.
Mary
was scheduled to take her Driver's Test this week, and she was going to drive
Ruby (the little red subaru). But Ruby developed an issue last week, something
related to the IACV, which precluded her being used to carry precious cargo.
Unless that cargo has a desire to sit by the side of the road, going nowhere.
(IACV issues cause the engine to stall out and die intermittently). Initially it
was thought that perhaps the issue could be resolved quickly, but one quick
crawl under the car yesterday revealed that the IACV is just the tip of the
iceberg. There is also a cracked boot on the driver-side drive shaft. And
grease splattering all over the place. And oil dripping onto the hot exhaust
pipe. And the brakes feel terrible. Ruby is going to sit this one out.
We'd
have Mary use Deb's car, but there's a parking brake issue. As in, no parking
brake action. The only thing keeping that car from rolling backwards down the
driveway is the Park setting in the transmission. Obviously, that car and I need
to spend some serious time getting to know one another, brake-wise. (I am
already quite well acquainted with its windshield, exhaust system, rear lights,
interior door panels, and console.) But there is this issue of time ...
The
graduation is coming up next week and we have guests arriving on Saturday. The
basement is not nearly ready yet, and there have been delays due to one thing
or another. The plumbing proceeds much too slowly. The flooring still needs
some trim work. The electrical is not quite complete. The drop ceiling is
barely started. The doors aren't even all up yet.
My car
stiill needs an exhaust fix (it's almost as loud as I am), and some brake work.
And some body work. Actually, all the old cars need body work. Which was my
plan for the summer. Take 'em apart down to the nubs, weld 'em solid, put 'em
back together. But that precludes any work on the house, yard, career, writing,
music, etc.
Speaking
of the yard and the things out there in it -- the baby birds who were nesting
under our deck finally took wing the other day. Seems like it was only a week
or two ago they were merely beaks pointing to the sky, begging for worms; then
suddenly they became huge blobs of downy fluff, too big for the nest; then
yesterday they were adolescent hooligans perched on the deck railing, squawking
like rugby fans, flapping their wings until the wind took pity on them and
whisked them away to distant branches, out of sight (but not out of earshot).
Anyone
wanna buy a used bird nest?
**
In
other news, I finally put the dishwasher back together (and, miracle of
miracles, it works!) so we are now able to handle large quantities of dirty
dishes. Just in time for visitors.
And the
downstairs bathroom plumbing is (mostly) working. The shower works; I just need
to install the shower door and then caulk everything.
Oh! And
the Plumbers are coming over on Friday to fix the gas leak. And check our
irrigation backflow valve. And try to sell us a tankless water system.
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