Aaand not even a full week later, guess who got into it on FB over Dr. Seuss.
We are still friends and all, I did not make an antagonizing post. But, I spoke with her on the phone and she seemed so angry about the thing and so personally attacked. Like literally "If you think Dr. Seuss books are racists, then you must think I'm racist."
I wish I could find a way to defuse these culture war bombs that the Right wing keeps setting off in my social feeds.
One week ago, on Sunday, I found the floor of my airing cupboard upstairs (where the hot water tank was located) soaking wet, and the leaking water had stained the ceiling of the kitchen, below.
I turned off the water where it comes into the house, and then turned on the taps (faucets) to drain all the water from the tanks. For a couple of days, we had no water, hot or cold; and no central heating.
Once things had dried out, I did some experiments and found the leak was only from the hot water system, so I was able to isolate just that and restore cold water and central heating.
I decided rather than just replace the leaking hot water tank, I'd get rid of it, plus the feeder tanks in the loft (there were three) and by changing my boiler (american furnace) to the newer "combi" type it would work everything and eliminate all the tanks. The old boiler (furnace) was 25+ years old, so likely to fail soon anyhow - also the newer ones are supposed to be more efficient and consume less natural gas.
I found an engineer prepared to do the job at short notice, and yesterday (Saturday during Easter weekend) he was here all day till about 9pm (no water or heating again while he worked). He somehow managed to spill another gallon or two of water into my kitchen ceiling, and this morning I discovered puddles of water inside a kitchen cupboard well away from the ceiling leak. That cupboard leak was easy for me to fix once I found where it was coming from (a leaking drain valve on one of the water pipes - I guess the engineer must have used that valve for something, and neglected to close it off properly afterwards).
We now have working hot and cold water and central heating. The engineer is due to return Tuesday to flush out the old radiator water and add some anti-corrosion chemicals to the fresh radiator water. He also still has to fit a new timer and thermostat.
So my house is now tankless, and my bank account is about £4000 lighter.
The ceiling is badly stained, and has a few hairline cracks where the water was dripping through, but the plaster isn't bulging or flaking off. I think I'll give it a couple of weeks to completely dry out, and then it will probably just need a smear of filler in the cracks, and a coat of paint.
Not up with me as such, but with my sister, and not even her so much as her horses. One of her horses has had a foal! A little chestnut colt with a forehead flash matching her (otherwise black) mother. Standing and drinking within an hour of birth and all is well.
It looks incredibly skinny so far, but the milk bar is right there.
Name suggestions are now being received. It's a boy horse. The name needs to begin with R because that's how the bloodlines work apparently don't ask it me even depends whether she wants to register it with the Dutch book because the sire is Dutch or with the British register but who would want to do that.
Where was I.
Yes, the name needs to begin with R, and be unique. It also, and this is her preference, not be naturally abbreviated to Rocky or Reg or Ray or Rick or Rob or Rudy. Or Rambo.
A strong name is good, although I can't quite explain what that means, and it's not just because he's a feisty little thing.
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"Her eyes in certain light were violet, and all her teeth were even. That's a rare, fair feature: even teeth. She smiled to excess, but she chewed with real distinction." - Eleanor of Aquitaine