Wednesday

It's about 10 am and we've completed the Census and found the washmachine leak.

The leak is in the drain pipe going into the wall.  Looks like it's plastic and maybe just needs to be tightened.  Or it's been cracked and due for replacement.  A wrench should tell the story.

Still cloudy and cool.

Later that day...

It took some work to get the washing machine fixed.  We'll return to that in a moment.  I wander off to Lowe's, a home goods store, and prowl the empty aisles looking for the plumbing section and then for washing machine parts and then for a clerk.  He was on the phone but pointed me back where I was.  I wander aisles 42 and 43 and still no luck.  But one of the plumbing guys comes by and helps me out.  Of course they don't have the specific part, but I've a new nut -- the old one split -- and new washers that didn't have the same shape, but might (a bit of foreshadowing there) fit. 

I take a stab at the Trader Joe's as I have a little list in my pocket.  There are the usual items, plus words of caution, e.g., "WASH YOUR HANDS" and "DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING" and "DON'T GET NEAR ANYONE!"  Barb is a bit nervous about the whole thing.  There is a line of four, so I get a cart and get in line and then two gals decide independently to cut in front of me.  Am I turning into chopped liver or something?  This seems to be a regular thing at TJ's.  I need to cough more or something.

I find everything and get it back in the car and home again.  "Wash your hands," I'm told.  Ok, ok.

Then I start on the pipe for the washer.  The water here is pretty bad in re corrosion and mineral build up.  It doesn't always smell real good and has been known to kill fish.  I have to clean the parts I'm going to reuse and that takes some time with scrapers and metal brushes and probes and such.  I've got it pretty clean and wander back to the utility room to assemble it all.  Now the new nut is made of plastic and section I'm got to bolt to is made of metal.  How do you spell cross thread?  In all cases, the fit is not great, so I take it apart and just try to dry ft the nut.  That seems to be a problem.  I go and fetch my brushes and files to clean up the threads on the pipe.  File and fit, file and fit.  I finally got it to go on.  I pull it off, reassemble the pipe to the washer and the new nut and then it's again a struggle to get the washer to compress and the threads to align. 

I manage to get it together and it all looks ok.  Hand tight and let's test!  I run a small load with no clothes in it and we have a leak.  It's pretty small, maybe two table spoons.  The old leak was measured in multiple cups.  I put down a bowl, grab a big wrench and tighten it a bit more.  Well, it doesn't tighten much.  We are going to give it a go and if it's still leaking I'll try some Teflon tape and maybe some liquid gasket.  The surfaces of all the parts are not in great shape, but there is not a lot of pressure, so maybe I'll get lucky.

We found a restaurant supply company and bought some beef strips.  A quarter of an inch or so, in a large five pound block.  We tossed it into the freezer, I think it was frozen when we got it.  We were going to do stir fry with beef and broccoli, but there was no way we were going to whack a chunk off of it.  So into the fridge to thaw and we'll cook all of it and freeze cooked parts later. 

So back the freezer to find something smaller and we grabbed a cooked chicken breast and thawed that and stir fried some broccolli and it came out pretty good. 

It was strange to be out.  Not much happening, nice light traffic.  The stores have taped marks on the floor to keep people away from each other in lines, but as you wander the store you can crash your cart into others or have near misses -- all good.  Some folks were in masks.

Will this become seen as just another flu?  I'm guessing yes.  I think the death rate is going to be pretty low and maybe the anti-malarial drugs will be effective.  But it's early.  Last I heard there were two cases in Pleasanton.