No hole required

So I called for repair of my leaking hose bib first thing yesterday.  I wound up calling Best Home Services, a company I used years ago to run an electric line for the pool heater.  They weren’t cheap back then but they did good work.

I was told their arrival window would be between 2-6pm.  I was pleasantly surprised when I got a call at 1:15 saying the tech was en route.  Someone arriving BEFORE their arrival window is as rare as a solar eclipse in SW Florida.  I got home a few minutes after the tech, named Shaine arrived.

I walked him over to the leaking fixture and explained to him the series of events.  When he looked at the leak he was pretty sure all he would need to do was put a new hose bib on.  He explained to me that bibs are normally sweated on (soldered) which I never knew.  I assumed it was threaded on.  It explained why I was unsuccessful when I tried to turn off the hose bib on the other side of the house a few weeks ago.  In retrospect I was lucky I didn’t crack that one.

I told him the amount of water inside seemed excessive for what looked to be a just steady drip.  When I showed him the sopping wet towels he was a bit surprised but still thought the bib was the culprit and not a crack in the pipe inside the wall.  He then gave me the estimate for the work which gave me an interesting choice.  He said to replace the hose bib would be $230 bucks but for $299 I could purchase a one year service contract which covers routine maintenance on your AC, electrical, and plumbing systems.  In addition it gets you 10% off repair work and waives the normal after hour and holiday premiums if I have a problem.  I did not call on Labor Day for that exact reason, I didn’t want to pay a premium for holiday work.  When he said he would replace the hose bib for free if I opted for the service contract it made the decision a no brainer.  The house is now 15 years old.  Throwing another $75 onto the bill for a year of free PM and savings on potential repairs was a good deal.

So Shaine got to work.  I did not watch the process of replacing the hose bib although I probably should have.  It would be good to add pipe sweating  to my bag of home repair tricks.  It didn’t take him very long.  When I went out to look at the repair I first thought he replaced the pipe and the bib as it was bright copper.  He said he just sanded down the pipe before soldering on the new bib.  The fitting and pipe looked bone dry which was encouraging.

Shaine said that he was very confident the problem was fixed but if there was any more water showing up after letting my mega fan run all night I should let them now.  I thanked him for his great service.  It was so nice to actually have a pleasant repair experience.  I could tell almost immediately that the leak had stopped.  The fan dried up the remaining water quickly and none flowed in to replace it which was a good feeling.  I let the fan run overnight just to be safe but tonight I should be able to put the room back together.  I was very glad I made the decision to not cut a hole in the drywall in the office.  It would have been just another unnecessary repair to make.

Last night I was under Katie’s truck, a 2005 Dodge Ram, after dark.  She had said it was driving weird and making some abnormal noises.  She had sent us a picture of the undercarriage.  It had what almost looked to be wet grass in a concentrated area.  I wanted to get a first hand look.  When I got under there with the flashlight I was even more confused.  The green substance was not grass, it was grease.  The fact that it was green is what confused me.  I later looked online I found that there is indeed green grease.  It is actually supposed to be a higher grade of grease compared to the black variety I was accustomed to.

The way it was on the undercarriage was weird, it almost looked like someone put the grease in a cake icing tube and squeezed, hard.  Through observation of the area that was coated and more research online it appears that the CV boot on that side has either a pinhole or small tear and centrifugal force while driving has expelled the grease.  The fact that it is making noise while driving means this has probably been the case for a little while.  I wouldn’t be surprised if the CV joint will need to be replaced.

We made a plan to have her drop off the truck at a garage she has used before, hoping they have a chance to look at it today.  We followed her in the Prius to make sure she made it to a Publix where she met up with her (ex) bf where he followed her to the garage.  She is using his car for now since he has a company truck to drive.

I am hoping one of the things we can talk Katie into is getting rid of the truck.  It is about as impractical of a vehicle as she could own right now.  It gets terrible gas mileage.  She said spent something insane like $600 in gas for it in the last month. For reference sake, we spent less than $400 to drive 6600 miles in the Prius last year on the road trip.

Her commute to work is even longer than mine and they used the Ram for a couple longer trips as well.  The thing is over 10 years old with about 115k on the odometer so repairs are going to be a more and more regular occurrence.  Plus the clear coat on the truck is starting to oxidize.  If she doesn’t dump it soon the exterior is going to really look like shit, making it harder to sell.  Katie said a few people had expressed interest in buying her truck.  Both Cindy and I told her she should take advantage of that interest.

I have felt very weak since I started the prednisone which I finished up last Friday.  At the gym my bench press numbers were the most anemic as I can recall in the last year.  After work I did some pull ups followed by another 20 minutes of rowing.  My pull up totals were 25% off my norm and after rowing I just felt wiped out in a pretty serious way.  When I weighed myself last night I was surprised to see I had lost 3-4 pounds, the opposite of what is supposed to happen on prednisone.  Weight gain is a common side effect.  Whatever is the ultimate cause, I hope the fog clears soon.