New Sink!

By now readers are well aware of the water problems (still) plaguing Flint. First, the poisonous water. Second, the "big flush" of chemicals that were added to the water to kill all the toxic life forms that were causing death, disease and cognitive impairment. Third, the toxic flow of toxic waste when that "flush" eroded 100 odd years of slime buildup in the lead pipes which, we were assured, were "good bacteria" that kept us safe from toxic waste. Fourth, the dissolving pipes eroded by the toxic flush. Now we are told that, in theory, the water is fine but it's the "clean as a whistle" lead pipes that are killing us. So which is worse: toxic water or lethal pipes? Only time will tell. In retrospect, it's all clear. Our half-bath off the living room has tissue paper thin pipes/fittings which, we were told, should on no account be touched by anything other than air currents otherwise they will crumble and we will have Old Testament style flooding within our walls. Our dishwasher, food disposal and washing machine are constantly breaking down, leaking or throwing fits. (One would think a top of the line Bosch dishwasher would last longer than a few months, wouldn't one? Well, one would be mistaken.) Then our kitchen faucet started dissolving. First it was the goose neck fitting between the base and the nozzle, then it was where the base attached to the sink. We had to shut off the cold water as it was gushing out. Finally, when the downstairs toilet exploded last week (again--and, again, flooding the livingroom) we caved and called out Two Mikes Plumbing. Old Man Mike owns the business. I asked if the young guy with him was Young Mike. Apparently not! Young Mike was his older brother, who has forsaken plumbing. So New Young Mike (whose real name is Dave) is stepping in. They weren't going to change the business name as they had worked too hard to establish a bit of name recognition to risk it, but the inaccuracy clearly rankled both. Many times did I hear how happy Old Man Mike was that "this one as least did what he was told". Old Man Mike also like to tell horror stories, in particular ones involving little old ladies traumatized by bursting pipes. So, with significantly lighter wallets, we have, again, fully working toilets (all of them!) and a fully functional, non-leaking kitchen sink and faucet.

What next? Well, the oven took over an hour to ignite yesterday. We went through similar business last winter, too, each day the oven taking progressively longer to "kick in", a tiresome affair when it's winter and everyone wants something hot to eat and salads just don't appeal.