Plumbing

I'm helping Alan repair a dripping faucet today. Yes, our faucets are only seven years old, and we're replacing all kinds of washers to keep them from dripping. We’ve already, with the help of our son-in-law, Quinn, replaced all the toilet insides. I am helping Alan because I want to know how to do it myself, so that in the future I won't have to wait a month with the water turned off in a sink that has a dripping faucet.

What has that to do with growing up? Well, my dad was NOT handy with tools. He had many, many tools that he apparently inherited from his dad, but he didn't use them. Fortunately for us we lived in a parsonage, and the repairs were the duty of the trustees of the church and church property. A parsonage is church property. So, if something went wrong with our plumbing, all we had to do was call up someone and presto, we'd have a plumber at the house fixing the ailing faucet or pipe.

Dad was handy with a plunger, though. Because of the cesspool thing, he did have to use it quite often. He could use a hammer to put a nail in a wall to hang a picture, but usually mom did that. I really don't recall seeing my dad using tools except once. That was when he built a platform for the train set he bought for us. He purchased a pre-cut sheet of ply wood, and six "legs" (4x4 pieces of wood cut one foot long. And these "legs" he nailed (not screwed as he should have) to the corners and mid-point on the two longer sides of the plywood, so that the platform would stand up from the floor. I guess he used enough nails because the platform DID withstand four children clambering onto a platform to play with the trains.

As I mentioned before we had a junk drawer in the kitchen. There were a few tools in there, including the hammer dad used on that platform. Also in the drawer was a couple of screw drivers, scissors, a pair of pliers, and a wrench (heavy). Mom was the only one that I ever saw go into that drawer to do repairs, until my youngest brother became tool savvy.

So, we're in the midst of repairing a faucet. The trouble we're having is getting the puzzle back together again so that the faucet turns on in the right direction. We'll get it, I'm sure.

Well, back to the job at hand.