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!