Back in KC

Has this ever been a long day. It started with climbing up and down our stairway checking out the electrical conduit to the dock. It is buried in the rock under the stairs. There are several boxes along the conduit, and each has wire nuts in them to connect it all together.

Lightening tends to blacken these connections. Taking each apart and cutting off enough wire to strip a new end and then putting new wire nuts on them, finally gave me power at the lower ground fault next to the sea wall.

Next I went to town and purchased a new GFI outlet. After installing this and a new cord keeper outlet cover, it all worked. I didn't have to dig up the conduit. Boy was I pleased!

However, as I was finishing this job, my son Chris was on the phone with a leaking water heater at his house, back in KC. We trouble shot this over the phone and fairly quickly determined a new heater was the order of the day.

I packed up hurriedly and drove back to KC by 6:30 tonight. Supper was at his house, as Mel made tacos. They hit the spot. We drug out the old heater, which seemed just as heavy as that tree we planted Sunday. We thought we had all the water out, but it dribbled all the way to the garage.

We slid the new one down the carpeted steps, making sure not to mess up the gas valve and fittings. It too was way too heavy, but gravity was in our favor.

And as is always the case, every pipe is a little longer or just a bit too short, so we were off to the Home Depot at 9PM. Good thing they stay open until 10. We finished around 11.

The water was on and nothing was leaking, from the copper joints we had to sweat. The gas lines were tested with soap suds, and we had no bubbles from them either. As I left, the fire was burning and everyone was waiting to get a shower.

Speaking of shower, I think I will go upstairs and get my second shower for the day. Perhaps tomorrow will be a little slower. Probably not!

Retired Rod