Nice to be home

Playing pool volleyball was really good for me. My leg made some progress and my back did even better. I need to play more often. We've got a pool here and, yeah, I could go walk back and forth in it and it would help. But volleyball lasts more than two hours during which time there is no opportunity to do much of anything but hit the ball and say nice shot every time someone else hits it. At the end you find out that you've been moving constantly for two hours, twisting and pushing against the water and working above your shoulders all the time.

My theory is that exercise is 10% effort and 90% finding a way not to be bored.

The flight back was fine. No one started a fight. I've got sound deadening Bose headphones I use for the trip so if the kids behind me were loud I didn't know. And no important parts fell off. We ended up sitting on the runway in Austin for 45 minutes. Austin is the hub of Southwest so all the other airlines just have to wait. But we made it.

All is well here. It will be 90 degrees tomorrow. Back in Texas.

We have a slow leak in our front yard so I'm trying to get a plumber to dig around and find it. Hoping it will not be too expensive. I'm thinking not. It is pretty localized. I'm not up to fixing it.

Tomorrow I get a cortisone shot in my left hip. Fingers crossed that it fixes things so I can build up my muscles in that leg.

Before that I've got my Ranch day tomorrow. The first dog I walk in the mornings is a biter:



His name is Billie. He wanted to do something he wasn't supposed to do one time last year and he bit me when I stopped him. On the hand. Broke the skin but I survived. It was a little bit my fault for making sure he never had the idea in the first place. Since then we've gotten on well. I watch him and know what he's thinking so he doesn't get in trouble. Others have not been so successful. He's bitten several of the other volunteers. I think I'm the only volunteer who is allowed to walk him. I've got special permission. Hell, I'll just bite him back. We're a couple of grumpy old men out early in the morning being cranky. I think he recognizes me and kind of understands. He comes to me and waits for me to get him ready before we go out. He'd still bite me in the right circumstances so I don't set it up for him.

And now $875 later

We had a water leak. Very slow but persistent. Dana had the city utility company look at it but of course, no luck, it wasn't them. So I looked around and figured about where the issue was and I was right. It was where the watering system connects to the main line:



Typical place for a leak. The connectors are cheap and they just throw them on. Glueless with a gasket that eventually wears out.

I sent a note to my network of friends and got a couple of names of plumbers. Two hours later one came out and did this:



High end flexible couplings properly glued in.

Not satisfied with my own eyes, I brought in my inspector to verify completion:



On the bright side the company was efficient and professional and quick on site. They were not cheap but as the saying goes: Quick, cheap, and high quality. Pick two.

The company has a membership plan and I bought into it while they were doing the work. The plan includes an inspection of all the plumbing including the hot water heater and house drainage system. And head of the line privileges and discount cost if there is any work. At the five year point this house is ready for a good inspection. I was thinking about bringing in a house inspector anyway but the plumbing is the most important thing to have done. So it works out.

I'd have been happier not to have had the big cost but nothing to be done about it. Investing in the long term value of the house.