Three of the four issues that complicated my life are flipping right-side-up.
The patient who had surgery is doing well. In fact, the resolution of their chronic pain, or at least the promise of its resolution, seems to have made them happy and optimistic.
The issue that tangled us up on Monday is on the mend.
I got my truck back at 7:30 p.m. yesterday. It still had more than 3/4 of a tank of gas.
Those are the good parts.
The not so great part is that I called the plumber when he missed the 3:00 p.m. appointment. "Things came up. I will try to make it between 5:00 and 6:00."
I replied "OK. No problem."
Then he missed that window. I called him up. "Hey, what is going on? I am going to be away from the house for an hour and a half."
"I am in the hospital" was his reply. Then he gave me some details which I am not going to share.
The bucket is still under the sink. I am going to take a shower at the gym today. A HOT shower.
Air Layering
I still had a few scion of a hazelnut that I want more copies of.
I also had a shortage of plants to graft them onto.
So I found a shoot that split into three stems that were of appropriate size and I grafted all three stems. Then I slid an empty milk jug over the stem and filled it with potting soil. I also ran baling twine through the handle and tied it to a branch in the mother tree.
 |
| Newspaper is stuffed in the hole that I cut in the bottom of the jug so I could slide it down the stems. (Pro-tip: position the jug over the mother stem BEFORE grafting) |
So, I want you to picture in your head a craftsman hyper-focusing on his task. He is handling very sharp blades and is attempting a procedure more complicated that his normal job.
The gallon jug holds quite a bit of potting soil and it has to be carefully tucked into every corner and care must be take that it doesn't leave the jug through the hole in the bottom.
Now I want you to visualize this refined gentleman reaching into his bag of potting soil to fill the milk jug and pulling out a 15" long snake.
Yep. A snake. A very dead, very stinky snake. I am not sure how he got there or even what species he was.
Fertilizer! Those will be some good grafts to transplant.
ReplyDeleteIf that had happened to me, I suspect there would have been a lot of jumping about and shouting, followed by a long scrubbing of the hands.
ReplyDeleteWhen I lived in Tx and living in the country I was very aware of this one fact - A decapitated snake head can retain its reflex to bite for several hours after death.
ReplyDeleteIt behooves people to learn basic plumbing skills as the "professionals" are over priced and unreliable. Fortunately both my son in law's are maintenance engineers for a major company...and are capable of fixing many varied things...so I have that ace in the hole.
ReplyDeleteYeah, well...
DeleteI thought it would be a slam dunk. The plumber shows up. Visually identifies the piece that is needed. Goes out to his truck. Opens a drawer. Pulls out the valve that matches the pipe in and the tube out. Installs it. Hands me a bill. Total time elapsed, 20 minutes.
...one week later...
I could have had it done in two hours and three trips to the hardware story. Handing this off to a pro seemed like a no-brainer at the time.
Ouch... hopefully you find/get a plumber to fix the issue...
ReplyDeleteMy last salary was $8750, ecom only worked 12 hours a week. My longtime neighbor yr estimated $15,000 and works about 20 hours for seven days. I can't believe how blunt he was when I looked up his information,
ReplyDeleteThis is what I do................ Homeprofit1.site
Nitpic about the hot water valves:
ReplyDeleteIn theory, there won't be a valve on the hot side coming out of the heater other than to shut off various branches. Turning off the cold inlet stops hot water leaking under pressure downstream once the pressure bleeds off in a few seconds. In theory...