Okay, so more like two weeks.

No, I still don’t have the iPhone back. I’ll tell you about that in its own time.

Given the carnival of errors and misfortune that ensued as soon as I went offline I’ve begun to think the blog was a good luck charm all this time and I didn’t know it, like it has been keeping Murphy at bay or something.

The good news: Nobody’s dead. I’m a little worried about Torso Boy but nobody is at present seriously ill. No fire was involved.

Let’s begin with the good things that have happened since last we spoke: I put one of those bypass regulators on the Lair’s kitchen propane feed, and it eventually worked. With the help of Rad Power Bikes’ excellent customer service* I fixed my ebike. Thanks to MM who supplied a new skid plate for under the crank, which is going to be good to have because the harness isn’t as tight on the frame as it used to be nor can I figure out how they got it as tight as they did. I’ve had the bike out a few times, yesterday put ten miles on it. Since I found an actual wire with an actual break inside the insulation, there’s no reason not to believe it’s completely fixed.

How long has it been? Two weeks? And that’s the full list of good things that have happened since the last post.

Bad things? Well, like I said nobody’s dead. Nobody you hadn’t already heard about is permanently impaired. Under the circumstances that’s a qualified win.

Sunday before last – So that would be the second of this month, a few days after the last post – I finally had the plumbing bits I needed to install a bypass regulator on the kitchen propane. That meant no more half-baked bread, and most especially it meant no more having to go out in the winter dark first thing in the morning when it’s ten below out because the blankety-blank propane bottle always sucks dry overnight and gets you out in the cold Very First Thing – and only, because Murphy is a dick, when it’s a really really cold one. I’ve wanted to install a new regulator there for a couple of years but it wasn’t nearly as important as the one on the bedroom – and I’ve had to buy two for the bedroom and there was always an excuse not to get one for the kitchen.

But I finally did, and worked out the inevitable plumbing issues, and guess what! It didn’t seem to work. Propane pressure dropped to nearly nothing. Sigh. So, jumping to the obvious mistaken conclusion, I put the old regulator back on and didn’t even check operation. I just re-installed the old regulator, lit the oven pilot, and was grouchy for the rest of the day. As it happens, I didn’t use the stove Sunday night.

Which is why it came as such a surprise when, Monday morning … Propane pressure was at nearly nothing. The problem wasn’t with the new regulator.

I pulled the oven away from the wall, to be reminded that in addition to the shut-off valve just under the stove cover there was another one down near the wall just because**. And that valve seemed to be cranked almost closed.

Sunday afternoon when I first installed the new regulator I noticed that the through-wall pipe had broken loose from its caulking and was a little loose in the hole. I didn’t think much about it at the time, resolving to caulk it back up when I finished the repair – but I couldn’t have known that when I was rotating the pipe back and forth installing, de-installing and re-installing regulators I was also pushing the handle of that lower valve against the wall and mostly closing the stupid valve. I mean what are the chances? (Shut up, Murphy.)

Okay, so that mystery was solved. I opened the valve, installed the new bypass regulator, tested everything and laboriously muscled the stove back up on its 4X4s*** all before the Monday morning water run…

…and it’s a good thing I did, too. Because when I got back to the Gulch, before I ever went home, I was pulling on a full barrel of chicken pellets over at Landlady’s place when my right shoulder came right the hell out of its socket. Oh, nauseating pain, how I remember thee.

I really don’t know what I did to deserve that. It’s a week and a half ago and I’m nowhere near recovered, though no longer using a sling.

And that’s not even the worst thing that happened that day.

(To Be Continued, because this got way too long.)


*No I wasn’t paid to say that and I’m not being sarcastic. I was impressed.

**No, I don’t remember why I did that. Best guess is that was the simplest way to connect the flexible pipe to the rigid one.

***Because for some reason my stove is stupid short and needs stilts to get up to the level of the counter.

About Joel

You shouldn't ask these questions of a paranoid recluse, you know.
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6 Responses to Okay, so more like two weeks.

  1. WAYNE DYGERT says:

    Murphy is our Shepard. We shall not want…

    Happy to hear from you again. Here’s hoping your trail smooths out to a full rumble

  2. Good to see you! So sorry about your shoulder. Damn Murphy!! Sending positive energy for healing.

  3. Ben says:

    Welcome back, Joel, TB, Lair, ebike, gulch and TUAK! We missed you.

  4. bill says:

    Good to see you Joel. Missed your face.

  5. Mark Matis says:

    Welcome back! I hope everything goes well with your iPhoney problem!

  6. JayNola says:

    Huzzah!

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