Fun With the Flu

             Where to start? For the first time in too many days I’m feeling human. Lets go back to Thursday of last week.

My neighbor Michelle sent me a note via Facebook asking to check her house for frozen pipes. She was out of town with family.

Soon as I walked into her backyard I heard the sound of spraying water. DAMN! There is and enclosed porch where the washer and dryer are located that had a cracked pipe. It is on the opposite side of the house from my driveway so I was unaware of the water running into the alley. I used the shut off wrench Scott gave me to shut the water off at the street.

I know for a fact this pipe has acted up before in sub freezing temperatures. I let myself into the house to find the cellar flooded. The sump pump had messed up. The water was about five inches deep. Double Damn!

I told Michelle that I would fix the split pipe for her. That unusual cold snap we suffered through had the plumbers out working overtime. This would be a simple repair using stuff I had in the workshop.

I had just finished up and turned on the water when Michele showed up. She had to take a break. Her mom was not good… she was being moved to hospice. The last thing Michele needs to worry about is a leaking plumbing. I showed her the repaired pipes and told her to put her family first; I would take care of draining out the basement water. I was just getting ready to meet the gang at Inninsfree for our standing 2nd Thursday of the month meeting.

Repaired copper pipes:

It was warm enough to wear my Utilikilt and walk to the restaurant. It was so nice to be with friends and relax. I ordered my usual fish and chips: This is something I don’t make at home saving it instead for occasions like this. As the night progressed I developed a dry cough.

Friday morning I woke up feeling kind of under the weather, but not all that bad. After breakfast I went to work at Michele’s. The first order of the day was to drain the water out of her basement. I had no boots and not knowing how the electric is there was no way I was walking around in standing water. I started out using my portable pump. Michelle’s basement is a lot like mine; about a third is a full cellar with the rest being a crawl space. I was able to climb through in the crawl space to get close to where the sump pump was located. By using piece of lumber was able to jiggle the float valve. That stuck float valve flew up, tripped that pump, and the water lever started to quickly drop.

It takes a lot of work to maintain a house. Looking around this crawl space my head was spinning. The electric light run in the cellar is still an old knob and tube set up. This was code 100 years ago, but can’t even begin to handle the needs of today. There is too much bare copper exposed from where the rubber/fabric insulation has fallen off. I remember rewiring my old house in Lockport 30+ years ago. I have done quite a bit here, but there were only one or two circuits still using knob and tube.

It is one thing to splice in some copper pipe, but when you get to wiring: that is a whole new ball game. Working on old houses is too much like working on clocks and watches, five problems can turn up for every initial problem you try to fix. Been there, done that, and got the tee shirt too many times.

By late Friday afternoon I was really feeling like shit, having chills and a fever of 102.4. I rarely get sick, but realize this is most likely the flu. Hot showers and flushing my sinuses out with my netti pot seems to help, along with constant gargling with salt water. Friday night I went to bed early wearing thermal underwear and sweats.

Saturday was a beautiful warm day and I did feel a little bit better. I needed some staples and was tempted to walk over to Publix. I drove instead. It was a good thing I did as I was on the down side as I headed for home.

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: ‘Bookman Old Style’;”>One nice thing about being retired is: not having to worry about work when being sick. When I was working at the plant in Lockport, my foreman infuriated me when I took a sick day off after never missing a day for over a year. He called me into his office, and read me the riot act. I asked him to show me the time I had missed time in the past two years in his records. There was nothing to show… he got kind of contrite and said I was expected to show up for work every scheduled day, if I was sick, I was to go home through the hospital.

From that time on I dragged myself into work no matter how sick I was. Once the shift would start I would request a relief break for the hospital. The medical staff there would get so pissed at me showing up hacking and coughing along with a fever. They would get even madder when I would remind them what I was just following my supervisors orders. I only lived a short distance from the plant so it was no big deal to retrace my steps home. The plus side was because I did show up for work, that missed time did not count as a sick day on my records.

The past few days have been just a blur of sleeping, coughing, and just trying to regain my health. I can tell where there is daily improvement. I’m hoping to feel well enough to get back to the “Y” in a few days.  

I spoke with Billy Sunday. He filled me in on our “gold dealer friend” in Florida. http://tbo.com/news/breaking-news/gold-dealers-avila-mansion-goes-back-to-bank-20131218/ We joked about that mansion would have been in our price range only reaching a bid of $259,500 .… at least till the property taxes would be due. Taxes on that place are 149K a year! How the mighty have fallen.

Billy has a mover contracted out to do the upcoming move in NC. We will be on site to assist. There is not a definite date as yet. That is the main reason to get better is for the upcoming road trip.