Watt's Up Musings of an original geek

Over the past week Katie has been asking me to buy her some salsa. She just can’t seem to find what she likes in Ohio. So I’ve been tasked with the job. Yesterday she phoned me and reminded me to find the salsa when I shop. She said that the jar has a white label and a white top. I thought that would be easy to find. Today at the HEB grocery store I looked, but couldn’t find what she was asking for. There were several jars that matched her description. I phoned her and she again tried to describe it and again I just couldn’t make a match. So we gave up, and I finished shopping, drove home, and unpacked. Then I got my camera and drove back to the store to take pictures of the selves. Not only that, but I drove to another HEB about 3 miles away and again took pictures of their salsa shelves. Any minute I was expecting store security to stop me, but nope nothing like that happened. So see what I do for my daughter. I know. I know. I’m a special kind of dad to do all that for her. Now let’s just hope that the right kind is there somewhere and she’ll be able to recognize it.

Update: After another phone call along with looking at all the pictures it was agreed that Jardine’s Fresh and Feisty Salsa was the one (fourth row down on the left side). Not exactly a white top, but hey at least she was able to find the right one.Soon to be shipped is a package with a jar of salsa, a bag of HEB-brand Texas shaped chips (they’ll probably arrive in bitty pieces), and massive amounts of packing peanuts. Is it worth it, probably not, but is she worth it, most definitely.
Update: The package arrived.

I’ve been doing little stuff around the house as everyone else sleeps in and since I’m an early morning riser. So far I’ve changed several dead light bulbs throughout the house, and replaced a faulty dimmer switch in the dining room.

Both bulbs in the garage door opener had burnt out and I didn’t want anyone to hurt themselves stumbling around in the dark in the garage. Also I bought a new 100W neon bulb to replace the very dim 60W bulb in the upstairs bathroom. Next time Matthew turns it on he will be shocked, because it’s quite a bit brighter which was my intent. Overall this is not a lot of work, but things like this need to be done to keep the house going.

Today’s event was the 2007 AT&T Austin Marathon
Update: That’s me finishing.

Photo courtesy of Action Sports International

This weekend I was busy with other things and while doing them Matthew and Beth put the fence together. Thanks!

A few weeks ago the fence on the side of the house blew down. The left-side fence post had rotted and weakened. So today, Sunday, after my marathon bus tour, Matthew, Beth and I spent a long time and a lot of energy digging a 2 1/2 foot deep hole with a post hole digger. Then we inserted an 8″ diameter cardboard form into the hole, back filled around it, and inserted a new 4″x4″ treated fence post into the tube. We mixed 80 lbs of concrete in the wheelbarrow, shoveled it into the tube around the post, and found that we didn’t have enough. So off I went to Home Depot to buy 60 lbs more. We mixed it up and filled the tube to the top. Tonight it’s curing and then we’ll put the fence back together. I really appreciate both Beth’s and Matthew’s help today. I couldn’t have done it without them.

Matthew wanted a chin up bar in the garage. Since he helped me clean out the garage in preparation for the hot water heater repair, and then assisted in the repair, we built a chin up bar for him on Saturday afternoon. Matthew already had the bar, but we had to create the wall mount. So when shopping for heater parts we bought materials for the mount. Since Matthew is a big guy we needed to make sure that it was strong enough to hold his weight. We worked together to drill the holes, mount the side boards, anchor them to the back, and then mount it on the wall with 4″ lag screw into studs.

At the end of last week Kathy noticed a puddle in the garage near the freezer. However, it wasn’t the freezer. Instead it was the water heater that is located right behind it. It was leaking. Very nicely Matthew on Friday cleaned up the garage and moved the freezer for me. So on Saturday after running the last 13.1 miles of the marathon course I opened up the water heater door and sure enough it was leaking. The floor was wet, and the top was wet. It didn’t look good. I was sure that the heater was leaking and it would cost upward to $1000 to buy and install a new one.

However after analyzing the symptoms I realized it was one of the pipes, the output hot water pipe (on the left), that was corroded and leaking. So it cost me $15 worth of parts and about $45 for a new torch. I shut off the cold water input, drained the tank, and turned off the gas. Then I took apart the old copper pipe joint, put on a new threaded coupling and then tightened on a new hot water output connection. Afterwards I turned on the cold water input, and lit the pilot. Unfortunately the sweating of my new coupling was leaking. So Sunday morning I did it all over again. Although initially it leaked a bit, the leak stopped and I’ve been checking it all day. So far it hasn’t leaked any more so I think I’ve fixed it. Slowly the damp floor is drying.