Daily Archives: April 3, 2011
Blood, Sweat, and Tears . . .
The Blood from my bleeding arm
The Sweat was Terry’s and mine.
The Tears were tears of joy
This was a semi-early morning, getting up about 8:15 am to be ready to head out to Home Depot about 8:45 with Nick and Terry.
We were now on Plan C.
Plan A had been to hook up Terry’s new faucet using the old connectors. That didn’t work out, and so Plan A devolved to Plan B.
Plan B proceeded last evening with a stop at Home Depot on the way to supper to get some new Sharkbite PEX connectors to replace to the old ones. If you work with PEX the Sharkbite fittings are the way to go. No crimping needed.
Coming back to the rig Terry and I spend the rest of the evening trying to get the new connectors threaded on to the faucet fittings. But the only thing we really accomplished was to twist the copper tubing on the new faucet into a knot, ruining it.
So, back to Plan C. Terry picked out a new faucet that she liked better than the one from Camping World, and it was cheaper too. We also picked some PEX tubing and some more, different connectors.
Before heading home, I ran next door to the Fry’s to pick some blueberry muffins for Jan, who had stayed back in the rig. I also grabbed a bouquet of fresh flowers for my sweetie. I consider them a kind of a ‘Get Out of Jail’ card, for when I screw up at a later date.
And you know I will.
Back to the rig, Terry started removing the damaged faucet while I fixed coffee to have with our muffins, and we settled down to get ready for our scheduled video Skype session with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon.
Lowell skyped us about 10 am and we had a great time seeing and talking to Landon. It was obvious he could see and hear us, based on his looking at the screen and reacting to our voices.
Our called lasted about 15 minutes, and it was amazing to see how much Landon had grown and changed since our last Skype.
Our call ended much too soon, and then it was back to the Faucet Wars.
But victory was not to be. After trying fruitlessly to connect the pipes to the faucet, it suddenly dawned on me what our problem really was. And quick check with the old faucet confirmed it.
The guy at Home Depot had sold us the WRONG size fittings, He gave us 1/2” FNPT fittings, with the ‘F’ meaning Fine Thread. We really needed MNPT or ‘M’ or Medium Thread. That explained why the connector would start turning and then immediately be almost impossible to turn.
So we were now dragged, kicking and screaming into Plan D. But at least Plan D included lunch.
And a great lunch it turned out to be. We first decided to try Hog Wild BBQ again, hoping not to be blocked by another shooting. But as it turned out, it only needed to be Sunday to block us. Hog Wild is closed on Sunday.
So our next choice was to try the gas station-looking burger joint we’d seen earlier. It turned out to be Bing’s Burger Station, complete with a
shiny red 1950 Plymouth at the pumps. And inside it had the look of a 1950’s diner.
The staff was very friendly, and even better, the food was delicious! Jan and Terry had burgers and fries, and Nick and I each had the Steak Sandwich, made with a REAL steak, a 7 oz. Sirloin Strip, on a hoagie roll, with all the trimmings.
Just the BEST steak sandwich, ever. We’ll definitely be back.
And speaking of being back, after lunch it was back to Home Depot, again. And this time we got the right connectors, along with two flexible faucet hoses to make it easier to hook up.
And easier it was. Getting back to the rig, it only took us about 20 minutes to wrap the job up.
Cue the tears of joy.
Back at our rig, I decided to celebrate our victory in the Faucet Wars with a well-deserved nap.
Well, maybe not well-deserved, but certainly well-wanted.
And then in further celebration, about 6 pm we all headed over to the DQ in Camp Verde for a round of cold treats and Nick’s dirty jokes.
A great combination.
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Thought for the Day:
You don’t have to be brilliant. Usually just not being stupid is good enough.
adf
