Kicking butterfly

I woke up! Late! 8:30 a.m.! I'm so lazy and so unashamed!
To the the pool I went, and without coffee,  that wonderful legal performance enhancing drug, with the intent of just swimming meekly. After pretending to swim some freestyle 100's, I got a dose of optimism.  I wasted it on some poorly executed butterfly 25's--I'm sure I looked to the life guard like I needed saving. I sought help from the basic kick drills, doing 8-10 25s.  Doing drills like that helps put the pieces more into automatic execution. That immensely improved the stroke.  Future butterfly sessions demand kicking drills for a good stroke not to be simply accidental.

FYI, pouring a solution of sodium thiosulfate on my hair & skin after swimming effectively takes out the chlorine.

Fixing more stuff

December 1, I flew Vegas to Portland, drove home and slept. Dec 2, I checked the pump in my basement, for which I'd bought a seal bearing assembly and a coupler from zoro.com--some clicking meant I needed to go to work.  I turned the pump motor off. December 3, I drained the heating system, removed the pump and replaced the seal bearing assembly and the coupler.  Performing the repair was strangely therapeutic. Heat's on!

No thanks to Dan at Sunset Air, who still hadn't gotten back to me with an estimate for this repair.  If ever he does call back, will I tell him I just closed off that part of the house?

End of days in Vegas

November 30.

No, Armageddon isn't upon us.

I am just winding up a 10 day visit to Vegas, where Brother, Sis and Mom live.  The amount of daylight here in the Southwest astounds me anew with each visit.

I drove Mom where she needed to go for groceries and where ever else (Brother) Tom would drive her when I was home in Washington.  She's still walking an hour a day--all in the house, doing laps through kitchen, dining room, living room and front hallway, with occasional side trips to the back yard. She used to walk outside in her gated community, but her fear of workmen (gardeners, contractors, etc) and drivers of cars that looked like they belonged in crummy neighborhoods drove her inside.  

Mom demonstrated the exquisite art of exaggeration as she estimated the cost of a repair I performed, replacing a hot water re-circulation pump.  The cost of labor will rise to equal or exceed the cost of the parts, no exception.  She estimated the cost of that repair to exceed $500.  After receiving the pump, I accepted Tom's offer to "help", but when he said he wanted to work on it late in the afternoon two days later, I chose to work on my own. I sprayed the old fittings with WD-40 to loosen them, waited, removed the pump, sweated some copper fittings and installed the pump.   The installation took an astonishingly short time (under 30 minutes).  Instant hot water again!