Water and Rocks

Flat number two on Saturday

It was late afternoon on Friday when the crew tearing up the street usually packs up to go home for the weekend when I heard the pump start up outside the living room window. Looking down at the street corner I could see four or five guys standing around a huge hole from which they were now pumping water into the storm drain. They did not look happy. 

I quickly surmised that they had managed to break a water line, probably the one going to the fire hydrant. So now they had to wait for the Sewerage & Water Board to come out and shut off the water to that line so they could make the repair. After waiting for about an hour, and promptly when overtime kicked in four or five S&WB guys arrived. Looking out of my home office window I could see them wandering around looking at the ground. They didn't know where the water shut-off was. I went down there and told them it was near the corner. I'd seen people shut off the valve numerous times in the past since we've had numerous water main breaks around here. The search continued, however, so I finally went down there myself, kicked away the riversand that was covering the valve cover, and called them over. Things were wrapped up about an hour later, albeit leaving the road closed and a big hole on the corner for the weekend. Two steps forward, one step backward.

Casing repair

Saturday's Giro featured two people flatting, both of whom I stopped for. One was a hopelessly slashed tubeless tire that ended up as a call for extraction. At least we had a nice little group of five or so for the ride out toward Venetian Isles where we met back up with the group. Then, on the way back down Hayne Blvd. there was a new hole in the concrete complete with a debris field of chunks of fractured roadway. Dave hit one of them and but a big slice in his sidewall. We were able to get him back on the road, though, so that was good. Then, just a block from home, I was navigating another pothole that's been there for about four years when I caught a rock just right and slashed my own tire's sidewall. I limped home on the flat and stitched in a boot made of some leftover rim strip rather than trash the tire. We'll see how long that holds out.  Sundays Giro was more normal, fortunately. Afterward I stopped at Starbucks to find the visiting rider from Florida who had contacted me the day before. By then I couldn't resist getting a coffee Frappuccino for myself. Back at home I peeled off the sweat-soaked clothes and jumped in the shower.

Old plumbing at EOL

The bath tub/shower faucets have been a problem lately and it's been practically impossible to stop them from dripping even though I'd changed the washers recently. When I went to turn off the hot water I felt something give inside the valve stem and knew it was bad. Hot water was just pouring out and the valve was obviously broken. Now in a normal house this wouldn't be a huge problem. However, in my house there are no shut-off valves for tub water lines. The cold water valve doesn't fully shut off the water either, as of last week. The shower diverter leaks enough that water from the cold water line gets to the hot water valve and vice-versa. The main house shut-off just sort of works, which is to say it doesn't quite shut off all of the water. The one valve that does work is the water heater valve, so I shut that off, which stopped the wide-open water pouring into the tub, leaving us with no hot water and a rapidly dripping cold water valve. This morning I pulled the valve stem out of the hot water valve after shutting off the whole house and rode the bike over to Ken Brown & Sons in Mid-City. If they didn't have what I needed for this old valve assembly, nobody did. The guys there were great and tried to find a valve stem that would work in this assembly that was made by a long-gone company, even calling a plumber who had come in with a similar problem a few days ago to find out if what he'd gotten had worked. The bottom line was that it didn't and we were basically out of do-it-yourself options. On the plus side they gave me a plumber recommendation. On the minus side, I probably won't see him until the end of the week. Fortunately it's summer now and the "cold" water is warm enough to shower with, so I guess I'll just shut off the house water at night to limit the waste and wait.