Boom!

I travel Internationally for work  at least annually and the chance of something going berserk is pretty darn good.   Last week I was in Puerto Vallarta for a sales meeting and I got the 'call'.  Linda was just ready to leave the house and heard a very disturbing 'boom' and then water blasting out of the wall from behind the toilet!  What??? Yes, a water line exploded and water was literally gushing out of the wall. Of course, I was in a meeting with my phone off, what kind of husband am I?   

Linda was not able to find the water cut off valve to the entire house--because the valve is in a horrible location for access.  So water was just gushing into the bathroom.  Linda was able to get the neighbor on the phone and he found the shut off valve and got the gusher stopped. Thanks John. She also diverted the water from the rest of the house with some towels to the drain in the floor of the bathroom area--it is a stone floor.    By then I looked at my phone and called home to a very shaken wife.   We also have a friend that is a very good handy man and he was coming to make some repairs to the line and get the water back on in the house.  Dan put a valve on the supply to the toilet and got the water back on and I was off the hook.  Thanks Dan!!  I would be home in 3 days.

 

Ok, back on line, but what happened here??   The house is mostly copper piping, but there is some plastic pieces added to the copper in the lower bathroom, and one of these plastic pieces broke completely  and basically exploded inside the wall. 

The fix was eliminating the plastic and running copper all the way.  As we redo the bathroom--next project-- all the plastic will be removed and this crap will not happen again.  I also made a change in the shut off valve for the house.   There were two pieces of 3/4 inch copper pipe in storage and I ran the new line to the hot water area and put in a real shut off valve. A major improvement that was sadly needed. 
Now we can kill the water pressure without crawling through dirt for 20 feet or removing a large aluminum panel. 

 

As far the sprinter stuff, I have been sick for a month and just trying to get healthy.  Working out--not happening now.  Over a month ago I got a cold or flu and felt better in a couple days, but I had some really dry skin and also was getting some splotches on my body, arms and legs.  They made a pattern of sort and were bad enough to see my doctor.   She had no answers, but I did do some steroids to help the healing.   They are finally gone, but I have no idea what happened.  I looked like a character out of the original Star Trek for a couple of weeks. I had scary skin.     We visited June a few weeks back  and she managed to give a cold to me and Linda and I am finally just getting off the constant cough drop regiment.   I would like to do some running, but the breathing is still a few days from being ready.   The last month has been tough.  Another problem this season is the flu shot I got in October was junk.  The wrong strain was predicted and the shot was ineffective and I know I had some flu already as well.   I wanna be better really bad!   

 

How about some good news?  Linda is a real trooper and managed the water explosion very well and for that I am very thankful and love her dearly.  She helped avoid a real mess which would have been a really complicated insurance claim and repair.   Love you bunches.