Trickle Down Theory

I had a few things on my weekend to do list that didn’t get done (I’m not surprised!); my wall calendar, picking up a mass of broken tree branches from the lawn (it was dreary and drizzly and cold and now this morning it’s very blustery; I’m sure more branches will be down before all is said and done) but one thing I didn’t think we would do was discover our toilet is an original 1954 model, which, coincidentally, is the year my house was built. The other night, even over the blasting volume of the TV, there was this tinkling sound of water and it turned out to be the toilet. The tank had filled too high and was trickling into the overflow tube. I flushed it to lower the water level and watched as the float rose with the water level and stop. Satisfied, I put the tank cover back on and resumed my TV. During the night, showing off how light a sleeper I am, the trickling had started again and the sound of it reached all the way upstairs and woke me up.

Ariel stopped at Home Depot, after having his truck serviced Saturday morning, to get replacement parts, but being that it’s a one piece toilet, they don’t carry them. He found the exact model on the American Standard website and we have to order the parts. And, to ascertain it was the right model, #2000, he found the molded in stamp, along with the date, January 13, 1954.

For some reason, even after the tank is full and the float cuts off the big rush of water, it actually keeps running, very, very slowly, but eventually fills enough to rise above the overflow tube. So, I have to keep the water supply shut off until we get the parts to fix it.

Speaking of trickling down, Ariel and I had our weigh-ins on Saturday morning and I am pretty pleased with our results. Ariel dropped 5 pounds and I took off 7. That much of a drop in the beginning was probably mostly water weight, due to the drastic and deliberate omission of salt. Even my socks don’t leave 1/8 inch indentations, already, a week in. I may not lose that much again this week, and I’m fine with that, but that first big number is such an incentive boost!

I capped off my weekend with something I haven’t done since I was a teenage. I slept Sunday morning until about 11:30 in the morning. Oh, I was in and out of consciousness, but the phone rang and woke me up. It was my mother coming to drop something off and she was calling from the driveway. She visited for a few hours and then we plopped in front of the TV, until it was time to make dinner and then resumed with the TV. Oh, and why all the laziness? Too much caffeine before bed on Friday plus listening to the trickling toilet and then we were out late Saturday night. No hangover, just a late night.

But, it’s Monday and that means it’s time for a brand new McGinty. Please enjoy.

     

 

 

       

Tags: American Red Cross, American Standart, Earthquake Relief, Help Haiti, toilet repair