faulty faucets

 

I should consider a career as a bureaucrat. Roads and Streets, I think.

Of course, I will not do that. I am far too content in my life of retirement. But I am certainly qualified for the position.

Last October, I invited Tracye Ross of Crazy Cactus to give me an estimate on painting my house (painting the dead). While we were inspecting what needed to be painted, she noted that one of the faucets on the upper terrace was dripping water. Before I could say faulty washer, a plumber arrived and installed a new faucet that seemed to stop the dripping ooze.

Well, it didn't. Our water contains a lot of extraneous substances, including various salts. The wall started looking like the Alvord Desert within weeks and was colored by the rust and pond scum that must have been lingering in the pipes. 

Tracye sent another plumber to the rescue. He took off the new faucet and looked at the pipe. When he looked up at me with that same look of pity and resignation that doctors show just before announcing: "I am afraid it is the worst," I knew this was not going to be good news for my newly-painted walls.

He suspected that there was a crack or hole in the pipe inside the wall. That would mean gouging out the plaster on the wall to replace the offending pipe.

That was last summer. The pipe remains exposed only for one reason. Tracye wanted to wait until the rainy season passed by before repairing the leaky tiles on the upper terrace. She would deal with the wall then.

And how is that similar to my imagined stint as a planner at Roads and Streets? We all know that being successful in such a position is to plan the re-paving of roads just weeks before Sewer and Water decides to lay new pipe. The newly-paved roads are dug up, the sewer and water guys do their thing, and the roads get re-paved. Just like my wall.

I am in no real rush to repair the wall, but repairing the leaky tiles is a priority before the rains return. And that will not be for about another six months.

So, we will all enjoy a relaxed Christmas, and deal with these two projects sometime in January or February. By that time, something new will occur here, and I can dig it out and have a third painting of my walls.

Digging up roads is merely tax dollars. Continually painting my walls is just my pension being put to good use.