Vacation ...

 Its day three of my "vacation," the plant where I work scheduled a week of shut down and that also means they scheduled a  week of my vacation.  Most people who know me would expect pictures from a beach or some foreign country but instead I hopefully give you pictures from my basement. 

 

About a month ago a basement wall collapsed and was not covered by insurance, I am however blessed with a nephew who has spent most of his working life in construction and his wife who has been laying brick as long.  

The past 2 days and probably many more will be spent doing all kinds of stuff.  Monday meant just plain work, cleaning, organizing,  throwing junk away, and putting up posts on other walls to prevent them from collapsing like the other one did.  our basement is not finished and you know how those can be. 

Yesterday was spent putting up more support posts and I spent the day moving a water heater.  This is not like moving a couch, you have to move the water heater but that means shutting water off, draining the tank, re-plumbing water, gas lines, and vents to the new location, forgetting to glue some connections, jumping when they blow because they  were not glued.  

It also means breaking the shut off valve on the main water line.  On the positive side I broke the valve after all work was done, it is leaking steady but we still have water pressure.   The valve is before the water meter so I am not paying for the water thats has been going down the drain a mere 6 inches away.  At the same time I learned the water company is only responsible foro the meter and nothing else.  I called the water company and had several options, they could come and do an emergency shut off, no charge.  After I made the repairs I could call them and they could come back and turn it back on -- for an after hours reconnection fee of $95.13.  

They really did not seem to mind that the water was leaking before the meter and they were not going to make money off of me, and since I would not be paying for it I did not mind either.  So we are going with option two.  Tomorrow morning (Thursday) between 8 - 11 someone will come out and turn  water off, no charge.  After we replace valve which should go quickly I can call to and ask them to send someone to turn the water back on, no charge.  I'm gonna go buy some doughnuts and have coffee ready, maybe the person to turn water off will be ready for a break and can save me some time.  

Time to get back to work....