A Rude Intrusion :: Day 13

This is my blog for day 13 of cancer treatment, Saturday, 22 Jul 2017.

Slept well last night, though I went to bed early and woke at 2:30 AM to a tremendous bang of thunder. It has been raining, raining, raining - all night. I went down to the basement, and, while all the pumps are running, we're getting some seepage in the new basement space. I think I'll be moving bins and boxes out of there today into the family room in the old basement, where I know we've never gotten water. Might have to ask for help - you available? 😉

By the way, that;s one of the things I have lined up to do - go through the bins and boxes and determine what to keep and what to discard. It's a big job, but I've got the time.

And the Open Championship is on! Six o'clock AM on the dot. (Yes, I get up early.)

Now, under the heading "Adventures in Home Ownership" . . .

After reviewing the pump situation, I decided that a new pump was needed in the new basement space. The 1/3 HP, though almost new, pump in the pit wasn't necessarily keeping up with the water. It was running every 5 seconds. So off to Home Depot I went in search of a pump, a length of tubing and a coupling. And they still had pumps! I was almost positive that they would be out. So I grabbed a 1/2 HP pump, the pipe and the coupling and headed home.

When I got back I went downstairs and measured the distance from the bottom of the pit to the coupling: 34 1/2 inches. Oh, and there was a really big frog in the pit! I have no idea why there would be a frog in the pit, but we're connected to the river somehow, so . . . whatever. I went to the garage, glued the coupling to the pipe, then mounted it in the pump and marked it at 34 1/2. But I'm of the "measure twice, cut once" school, so went back downstairs to double-check. Good thing. I measured twice to be sure: 37 5/8". MEASURE TWICE, CUT ONCE.

With the pump assembled, I went back downstairs, pump in hand, waited for the pump to stop, unplugged it, opened the pit, disconnected the flexible joint, pulled out the old pump, dropped in the new one, connected the flexible joint and plugged it in. Voila! Old pump switched out for new without any water coming up in the basement! Plus, I have a ready replacement just sitting there, waiting to be put back into use at a moment's notice.

Several interesting things about the Home Depot trip and recent rains: the pond on Hale Lane is more full that I have ever seen it, ready to flow out to Hale Lane itself; the river has spilled through the townhouse subdivision and has spilled out on Hale Lane, further south of the pond; the parking lot at Home Depot is also flooded, with multiple inches of water covering almost 60% of the lot; I passed a 20-acre parcel of land on Smith Road, marked for sale but now completely flooded. The last item is a warning to all potential buyers: look at what you want to buy in the worst possible light, and, if it still looks good, go ahead. Make sense?

Watched the Open Championship for a while today. Jordan Spieth has really got it going! And 24 year old; wow. Just wow.

Spent a bit of the afternoon outside, reading the second half of Killing Lincoln. Sad that a great man had to die like that. But another good read by O'Reilly and Dugard. All I've got left is the section from Harper's Weekly, 29 Apr 1865. I started it, but have a lot more to read. So I'll probably start over. The style is certainly different than almost anything we read today.

And from YouTube, today: The Beatles, with And I Love Her (here), one of the songs I re-wrote for The Beatles Service at church. Enjoy!

And, from the Beatles Service, here are the rewritten lyrics to that song, called And I Love You.

And I Love You

My children, that you are
So I name you
And I am from afar
A father true
I love you

For you I sent my son
At such a cost
He paid your price in full
Upon the cross
And I love you

My love for you
Will never die
Ever will I
Hold you near me

I made the stars that shine
I made the sky
The rainbow shows my love
Will never die
And I love you

I made the stars that shine
I made the sky
The rainbow shows my love
Will never die
And I love you

For convenience sake, here a running list of all of the links I've posted to YouTube in the past few days:

According to Plan, Carolyn Arends - Link
And I Love Her - Link

Because We've Ended As Lovers, Larry Carlton & Steve Lukather - Link
Cross Road Blues, Robert Johnson Link
Crossroads, Eric Clapton and Cream Link
Groucho Movie Clips - Link
Lookin' At The World Through A Windshield, Bill Kirchen - Link

My Funny Valentine, Kristin Chenoweth - Link

My Funny Valentine, Miles Davis - Link
On The Street Where You Live, Dean Martin - Link
Route 66, Asleep at The Wheel - Link
Shim, Sham, Shimmy (dance) to Tain't What You Do, Jimmy Lunceford - Link
St Louis Blues, Stephanie Trick & Paolo Alderighi - Link
Standing at the Crossroads, Elmore James - Link
Starts and Stripes Forever, United States Marine Band - Link
Sweet Georgia Brown, Wynton Marsalis/Mark O'Connor - Link
That's Jazz, Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong & The All Stars - Link
Time to Blow, From That Thing You Do - Link