A Sink Saga and New Adventures in Iran

Not much time for Jake's place today. Yesterday morning, as I was making coffee in preparation for the commute to the parish for the Thanksgiving Eucharist, the water handle on the kitchen sink came off in my hand as I turned on the water. I picked up a new faucet on the way home at the only place open on Thanksgiving; K-Mart (soon to be known as Sears, I understand...a rather strange marriage).

Installing it seemed to go smoothly, until I realized that the water lines were too short for the new fixture, and the additional coupling for the spray nozzle, which I wasn't using, had to be capped, or when the water was turned on, it was redirected out the open nozzle line, thus flooding the cupboard under the sink.

Since I wouldn't be using the nozzle's flex line, I cut it, and inserted the fittings from the old line in each end, thus making a new hot water line that was long enough. The previous hot water line, being slightly longer, now became the cold water line. Another piece of the flex line became the plug for the spray nozzle outlet, with a pencil in the end as a plug.

When the water was turned on, all seemed well; for about 15 seconds. The pressure of the hot water was too much for my McGivered line. The flex line burst free of the fitting, spraying hot water in every direction. Of course, that was the moment when Demi chose to walk into the kitchen, which now had about half an inch of water covering the floor, as I frantically scrambled under the sink to turn the water off. She was not impressed with my handiwork.

After cleaning up most of the water, I found that my pencil plug was a bit of a joke. I dug up a larger bolt from the bottom of my tool box, filled the end of the line with silicone, coated the bolt in silicone, and screwed it in to the end of the line. That worked, so far.

So now we have cold water, but no hot. Since the hardware store will be open today, I'll go hunt for the right line. If I would have just waited, I could have saved myself two hours and a good soaking yesterday. But no, that would be too rational.

I may look for a cap for the nozzle line. Or maybe I won't. I'm rather proud of the creativity expressed through my siliconed bolt plug.

Before venturing once again into the glories of home plumbing, I did a bit of surfing over my morning coffee. Left at the Altar points to this bit of ominous news;
Pentagon turns heat up on Iran...

Pentagon hawks have begun discussing military action against Iran to neutralise its nuclear weapons threat, including possible strikes on leadership, political and security targets.

With a deadline of tomorrow for Iran to begin an agreed freeze on enriching uranium, which can be used to produce nuclear weapons, sources have disclosed that the latest Pentagon gaming model for 'neutralising' Iran's nuclear threat involves strikes in support of regime change.

Why does this not surprise me?

I wonder where Bush will get the troops for another pre-emptive invasion? Dare we mention the ugly D word now that the election is over?

Yeah, come on all of you, big strong men,
Uncle Sam needs your help again.
He's got himself in a terrible jam
Way over yonder in Iraq/Iran
So put down your books and pick up a gun,
We're gonna have a whole lotta fun.

And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for ?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
Next stop is Iraq/Iran;
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no time to wonder why,
Whoopee! we're all gonna die.

May God have mercy on us all.

J.