My wife, the plumber

On Friday, I decided to work on our irrigation system as I had a few more things to finish up since our main plumbing problem of last month. While I was finishing the plumbing, I decided to replace the fill valve for our pool with an electronically controlled, sprinkler valve. I already had an anti-siphon device, so I just needed the valve. The old valve leaked and I had to manually remember to shut it off.

I went to unscrew the old valve and as I was doing it, the valve started turning where it shouldn't. I then realized that I had a problem. Oh no, another call to a plumber. I called my dad and he said to call my brother-in-law who had tools to do plumbing work. My brother-in-law, Chris, came over and tried to solder a cap in the line. Chris is an attorney, not a plumber, so he did his best. Unfortunately his work didn't hold and I was all set to call a plumber when my wife, Janessa, said that she wanted to take a crack at it. She does jewelry work and has soldered before. We left her alone and she soldered away. When I came back, she had finished the first joint and then started on the second joint. She finished, when tested it and bingo, it worked!

The only reason I hesitated in letting her take a crack at it in the first place is that she had never worked with plumbing or pipes before. However, soldering is soldering. I shouldn't have doubted her skills. Janessa might reject her soldering as now I can task her with tricky household maintenance work :-).

New Math

I've gotten a bit fed up with our local paper in that the content is decreasing very rapidly (the quality of the content was always questionable). We decided today that we'd goto Sunday only if it was significantly cheaper. I called and was told that Sunday only was $9/month; we currently pay $11.25/month for every day. I said that I wanted to cancel, so the lady on the phone said that we could get Friday-Sunday for $6/month. Hmmm, so for $3 less per month, we get 2 more days than Sunday alone? I don't get it, but decided we'll go for it for awhile.

Our dog will probably be bummed about this as he gets the paper every morning. We'll just have to throw one out there for him to bring back.

Well, then, there

Well, then, there

My wife said this today as a retort to something I said. I'm still scratching my head figuring out what she meant. I'm not sure she knows, either.

Lottery

One of the propositions on the upcoming California ballot is about changing how the lottery works and increases advertising for the lottery. I have read the pros and cons of the proposition and no one has mentioned that lotteries are effectively a tax on those can't afford it. (A friend of mine has called lotteries a tax on those that can't do math.) In many cases, low income people play the lottery in the hopes that they'll win. While there is nothing wrong with hoping, the reality is that people will keep playing the lottery despite the odds.

Increasing advertising of the lottery will add a tax burden to low income people. This is probably the best reason I can think of to vote against this proposition; we don't need increased advertising for the lottery and don't need to encourage more people to play it. How about some real solutions instead of this hidden tax?