My 75 year old galvanized pipe water service between the meter and the house gave up the ghost Friday evening.?ÿ I noticed the back yard was standing in a LOT of water and thought maybe the garden hose had been left on all night.?ÿ Nope.?ÿ But about 5' from the foundation there was an 'artesian' well (albeit chlorinated) bubbling forth.?ÿ?ÿAfter shutting the water off at the meter the first local plumber that came up on Google got a call from me.
I really wasn't looking forward to a weekend of running out and turning the water on and off.?ÿ I agreed to their exorbitant (tongue-in-cheek) rates just to get someone out here over the weekend.?ÿ I was aware the entire service needs replaced, but was hoping a good plumber could get a quickie repair done so I could take a leisurely shower in the evening.?ÿ The plumber's dispatcher said he'd give 'Tina' a call and see if she could call me back.
Tina called me back about 7:00 PM Friday night and said she'd be out between 1 and 3 on Saturday.?ÿ And sure enough about 1:30 she arrived.
And let me explain.?ÿ I didn't care who came out, just as long as they were a good plumber and ready to help.?ÿ What I didn't want was someone charging me $125 an hour to look at it and tell me they'd be out on Tuesday.?ÿ?ÿI wasn't surprised to see Tina getting out of the truck.?ÿ She looked just like she sounded on the phone.?ÿ She was barely 5' tall, about 175 pounds with a bleached spiked crew cut and lots of tattoos.?ÿ What did surprise me was how clean her boots and clothes were.?ÿ I was sure she was going to just take a 'look' and get gone.?ÿ Boy was I surprised.
We turned the water back on the locate the "spring".?ÿ Tina went back to her very tidy and orderly truck and got out what looked like brand new shovels and brand new mud boots.?ÿ In 30 minutes she had a 4' deep and 4' across hole dug, found the water line AND the leak.?ÿ?ÿBy now the clock had barely registered an hour.?ÿ She pumped out the hole, cut the leak out of the line and installed a couple of bronze couplings and a foot of PVC.?ÿ We pressured the line back up and spent 15 minutes watching for other leaks.?ÿ The spinner on my meter was motionless.?ÿ Success.
I was presented a $270 invoice that included 10% off for a Senior Discount that I didn't ask for.?ÿ ?ÿI was so happy I helped her wash off all her tools and boots.?ÿ When she put everything back in its place in her van everything looked like they did when she first got them out...brand new.?ÿ I had to tell her how impressed I was with her abilities and her work ethic.?ÿ I would have paid twice that for the repair without even batting an eye.
Tina called in a utility locate and sometime next week they'll all be back out to put in a new service line.?ÿ I can't say enough about how professional and what a hard worker she was...and it was all fate.?ÿ "Bill's Plumbing" was the first 24 hour local plumber that came up on a Google search.?ÿ I'm just glad there wasn't an "AAA Plumbing" or I wouldn't have gotten the right 'man' for the job. 😉
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Female umpire today in the Little League World Series CHAMPIONSHIP. She's also a RN and a former commander in the Navy plus a mother of two boys.
Two damn good teams playing. Just a few over agressive?ÿ base running errors by both teams.
Just an observation here..
I watch a couple of "Live" cop shows on the TV during the weekend.?ÿ In my opinion the female officers I've seen have a superior ability to cope with a situation.?ÿ I believe most of them exhibit far great communication skills and patience when dealing with the everyday "drama" they encounter.?ÿ It appears to me the male officers have a propensity to jump too quickly to the brusque "hands on" encounter.?ÿ Not that women officers can't slam a drunk to the ground and cuff them quickly because they do if necessary, just as well as their male co-workers.?ÿ
My hat's off to the women in law enforcement for their social skills and discretion.
Watched a competition put on between random men and women who were given a list of 10 things to do as quickly as possible. The winner completed the list in the shortest time. Number ten on the list was to disregard the previous ?ÿ9 tasks and just sign your name. A stop watch was used, on your mark, get set, go! Nine out of ten men performed each task before getting to ?ÿten and realizing they'd been duped. Close to 9 out of ten women read the entire list before starting and just signed their name before even beginning the first task.?ÿ
The men's competitiveness worked against them.
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Our first house had a galvanized iron pipe 3/4 service in the backyard. It sprung a leak so I called the private water company...the guy came out and put a little repair clamp on it. Later he installed a box and angle stop at the main (near the fence), connected me to the neighbors via a garden hose (hose bib to hose bib) to give me time to dig and replace the pipe. ?ÿAll for free. That was 25+ years ago.
Next two houses are in public water district. Now we have a meter with 80psi.
