Thursday September 13/12 update
Oh, this is another of those days where I should have just
stayed in bed. I had a bad night, moving
from upstairs to downstairs and back upstairs to avoid the Boys. I love them, but cleaning up 3 separate pukes
and then dealing with cat litter is not my idea of a picker-upper in the
morning.
I had an appointment with a plumber for 8:30am, the husband
of a Gringo facilitator that friends had used. Bella’s toilet leaks at the bottom so the
installation of a new wax ring was needed. I didn’t want to tackle this myself in case I
screwed it up because I could not see a shutoff for the toilet only, and I didn’t
want to be without water in the whole house. I figured it would be an hour job, four bolts
and a water line to unhook and rehook. This
guy wanted $20 for that hour which is really excessive by Ecuadorian standards
but I would have felt more comfortable.
Well the guy never showed up, so I emailed them back to ask
if they had a place on their website for testimonials from unhappy customers,
to match our friends’ glowing recommendation. No response, no apology either….
I looked things over and turned off the cold water shutoff
for the sink. Guess what??!! That also shut off the water to the toilet! So, after a few careful considerations I
decided to give it a try myself. At
worst I could call somebody in anytime if I felt out of my depth. I was in no hurry so I took almost all day to
get done right. I drained all the water,
unhooked the water line, took off the tank, and then the base. I
compared the existing wax ring with my new one and they were virtually
identical. I cleaned up the whole area then I took the new wax ring box upstairs to
use Google Translate to understand the Spanish instructions. They were pretty much what I expected.
Now I don’t like playing with pressure pipes and I had not
seen a toilet apart in 40 years, so it was daunting at first, but not
insurmountable. I took my sweet time
about it, measuring my moves slowly, and actually put it all back together
rather easily. Look Ma, no leaks.
Another headache rose up this morning effectively scuttling
our attempt to rescue the two teachers that summarily quit AAC before they
started. This was most unfortunate so now we are back to playing teacher with our
dedicated core that began the group. Dealing
with volunteers is tricky and it doesn’t take too long to figure out who doesn’t
fit in when they don't play nice.
Tomorrow we have AAC then I am invited out to a supper with
Michael and Cody Hamilton, joined by Paul and Anita Wolf, photographers all. I am
sure we will be discussing some possible excursions. I keep
getting asked by complete strangers when we are having another photo trip, so
it is time to get busy on that front. The
big problem is getting a reliable driver with access to different size vehicles
to accommodate everyone. I fully expect
a huge response to another night tour.
That was today’s excitement. Hugs to all.
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| Leaky toilet |
 |
| I got it all apart and cleaned up the mess |
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| Back together and it is like new. |
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