Sunday Thoughts

Our guest bathroom toilet has been broken since...May, I think. This weekend Oriah and I finally had no significant plans so it was deemed the "cleaning" weekend - a chance to catch up on all the months of stuff that had been put off. Job #1 for me: Fix the upstairs toilet.

A few months back Oriah and I were at a family gathering at Alyson's when conversation turned to Al's busted downstairs toilet. She had purchased a kit to replace the guts but hadn't gotten to it yet. I volunteered to do it (this period of time was shortly after the shelf-building venture so I was feeling pretty confident in my "Mr. Fix It" skills at the time.) The job took Oriah and I about an hour and we got it right the first time! With that experience under my belt I thought I'd have a similar experience this 2nd time around.

Not-so-much.

The repair kit I bought (more expensive than Al's) was a complete replacement kit. Whereas Oriah and I simply changed out parts in Al's toilet we were disassembling the entire upper-half of ours and putting it back together. I realized about an hour into the job that I didn't have a number of tools I would need in order to be successful in this home repair adventure. One of the few benefits of working at Wally World...discount card!

Hello Mr. Stanley Fat Max adjustable wrench and joint pliers! I've been waiting for you! Welcome to my home tool set!


Once I had these proverbial six-shooters in hand it was "game over." The voice of my old man from my childhood memories echoed inside my head as I heard him say, "It's amazing what you can do with the right tools." Amen.

Overall, this job took between 2-3 hours and we now enjoy a functional guest toilet! Oriah's happy. I'm happy. Life is good. And, just in time for Al to come down this weekend for some golf and the Cougs next home game versus Wyoming.

Something else I've been thinking a lot about: my ear hair. I don't know the exact moment I first noticed it growing or at what age...but I've got it now. I don't consider myself necessarily old enough to have ear hair. But it's there. There's always more of it. And it is growing faster all of the time. It's almost unmanageable. I'm contemplating laser treatment. Or...I could go this route. Choices, choices...

Last, the "O" in Oriah stands for Observant. Check this out:




Do you see it?





Nothin' too easy about opening that top.