Squish Squish

Shore BirdsWhen I stepped up to the refrigerator, as I went about my usual after work business of fixing of chilled drinks for us, my foot made a squish sound. It was water. There was a nice wet spot surrounding the fridge. I pulled it away from the wall to see water leaking from the coupler connecting the ice maker input line to the supply line. Dang. I hate plumbing.

I headed out to the garage and my tool box to get a couple of wrenches. I was not to be so lucky, just tightening the fitting had no effect on the leak. So outside I went to shut off water to the house. I really hate plumbing. With a trip to my local home warehouse store imminent and the water to the house off, I figured now was time to take a look at the kitchen faucet that had developed a drip. You could get it to stop by turning it off and then moving the handle a touch. Move it too little or too much and the leak stayed or even get worse, but I had mastered this shut off maneuver. On the other hand the major faucet user was not to happy with the arraignment. What the heck, Valentine’s Day is coming up.

At the store I bought the new washers and springs for the faucet and also the little ball on a stick thing controls the water flow. I bought a new coupling and as a extra precaution bought some of those little white plastic crush rings (or whatever they are really called.)

Back home I put all the new faucet pieces in and buttoned it up. Next I put the new coupling on the water line. I went outside and turned the water to the house back on. The faucet worked like a charm and was an instant hit with the spousal unit. The coupling on the ice maker water line was spraying a fine mist of water all over the place behind the fridge. And just like the first time, tightening it a little more with the wrench had zero effect. Back outside to turn off the whole house line again. Have I mentioned I hate plumbing?

I took the new coupling off and put the old one back on using two of the new white sleeve things. Success, no leaks (he writes, as he simultaneously knocks on wood.) Pushed the refrigerator back against the wall, but coiled the ice maker water line in such a manner as to leave the coupling easily visible for frequent checks.

By the time everything was tidied up and the tools put away it was much too late to cook dinner at home. Acropolis, here we come. Large Greek salad to split and a gyro each. Water for her and iced tea for me.

Meal Cost: $18.50
Tip: $3.00
Spent Today: $21.50
Year to Date: $355.17

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 43

Which Way Home?

This sign sits on the Island Ford Road near the site of the town of Ninety Six around the time of the Revolutionary War. We took a break from Post Office hunting on Saturday to tour the Ninety Six National Historic Site.We had been here once before a long time ago with the Aiken Bicycle Club (we rode here and back from Edgefield.)

Big news is that I’ve added a little plugin to take advantage of a nifty javascript called Lightbox, so now when you click on an image in the post you don’t get the plain view, you get a pop-up kind of thing that is much more elegant. Go ahead, try it. Now I wonder if there is a way to retroactively add it to all the previous images? For now I’ve done all the ones I’ve uploaded this year…

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 42

Talking Heads

10:00AM – Sports Reporters on ESPN
10:30AM – end of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea on AMC
11:00AM – Sunday Morning Shootout on AMC
11:30AM – Inside the Actors Studio on Bravo
3:00PM – come up for air to go to the grocery store

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 40

49 Down and 318 To Go

According to the idiots who started me on this quest, there are 367 Post Offices in South Carolina. After today’s 160 mile, seven PO trip we are 13% of the way towards the goal of getting a picture of everyone.

We stopped in Greenwood after getting both Post Offices there for some lunch at a place called T.W. Boon?s. We split a Shrimp Po-boy, Onion Rings and a Sierra Mist.

Meal Cost: $8.56
Tip: $1.44
So Far Today: $10.00

The Postal Gallery Database site says 367, but I can not get a definitive list from the US Postal Service site. If I search from Columbia (which is pretty much in the center of the state) with a hundred mile radius I get 488 results. This probably isn’t accurate because it may include surrounding states, when I search from Aiken for a 100 miles it starts to list Augusta, Georgia POs.

Wikipedia lists 541 Zip Codes in the state. When I went through that list and removed the ones that said PO Box after the name I end up with 404. But I know that isn’t right because there are only 2 Post Offices in Aiken and I was left with 4 zips. Plus there were 5 or 6 names I removed that I recognized as having buildings (because I have pictures of them), so I’m thinking that the PO Box designation means there is no carrier service in those locations.

The USPS site may not even be 100% accurate as to how many it has either. When we first started this quest it listed a Post Office in the micro-town of Snelling, SC and no amount of driving the few streets in that town using the USPS site’s map resulted in a find. Same thing happened in Hilton Head where we could only find two of the four the site had listed for there. Searching today lists no P.O. for Snelling and 3 for Hilton Head.

Anyway, we may never know if we get all of them, but we sure are going to try.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 39

Tonight we had dinner out with friends at Olive Oils right here in Aiken. Grilled Chicken Breast topped with Proscuito and Cheese for him. Seafood Ravioli for her. Water to drink. All the salad and breadsticks you can eat included.

Meal Cost: $29.68
Tip: $5.32
Spent This Meal: $35.00
Spent Today: $45.00
Year to Date: $333.67

Lunch Special

This afternoon was our half day off for working 9 hours for the last 4 days. Our intention was to go to the Stoplight Deli, but we ended up at Ferrando’s for pizza instead. 14″ pie with pepperoni, sausage, onions, green peppers and banana (pepper) rings. Two garden salads a Sprite and a water. Plus a little cup of marinara sauce for crust dipping. The good thing abut this meal is that we only eat half the pie, so Sunday’s lunch is already taken care of…

Meal Cost: $19.08
Tip: $3.92
Spent Today: $23.00
Year to Date: $288.67

Hammy

1969 Hammy AwardsOur neighbors across the street are a charming old retired couple that we have come to know well in our 18 years here in Aiken. During the 5 years that Donna’s mom lived with us we had Oliver and Nancy over for dinner several times. Oliver is the talker of the two and he would regale us with tales of early life in Aiken and all manner of subjects. They moved into Dunbarton Oaks in the middle 50’s when the subdivision was first built. Oliver was an engineer that came to town to work at the newly opened top secret bomb plant south of town and Nancy taught school. Both have long since retired.

But in all the time we’ve known him, he never once mentioned his acting days with the local playhouse, so we were quite surprised to see this picture in the Aiken Standard’s “Portrait’s of the Past” section this week. I cut it out and laminated it for him. When I gave him the picture I told Oliver that the next time I come visit his house I’d like to see his award. He told me it is probably in the attic somewhere gathering dust. I’m sure 38 years ago it held a place of prominence on his mantle though.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 37

Because You Never Know When You Might Need It

Taiwan Visa StampsWe are planning a dip into Canada in May when we next visit the Pacific northwest in May. Donna has a long lost cousin that lives near Vancouver and we, along with her big brother and his wife, are going to say hello. As of January 23, 2007 you need a passport to get into Canada (and more importantly, back into the US) if you are traveling by boat or plane. If you are driving you won’t need one until next January. We are taking a ferry, so are we driving or boating in? We are not going to take any chances, so tomorrow we are going to the post office to get some new passports.

We already have passports, but they are a little out of date, they expired almost 24 years ago. To get a new one you need proof of US citizenship and our old passports fit that bill. When I filled out the application I checked the box saying that we would surrender our old passports. Everything was fine until tonight and besides having a hard time finding where we put them last, Donna got a little misty eyed about them as souvenirs of our honeymoon. Almost didn’t want to give them up. I got her to grudging agree to turn them in, but to make nice, I scanned all the pages into the PC.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 36