I'm telling you if things get much more exciting around here...
Yesterday, as I was doing some late afternoon jungle pruning between rain storms, I heard water running. Went for a look see around the house and there in front was a busted pipe. Well that's interesting, I'll just turn the shut off valve to off, and repair it. Except that didn't turn off the water, it seems the leak was above the valve. Hmm, off to find the main shut off. I went to where I thought it was, and there one was. Turned it to the off position, tried the faucet beside it, no water. Yeah! Walked back around the house to find water still pouring out. Hmmm.
Went in the house to ask Dad where the Main water shut off was. Well he had to look at the problem before he could answer that. After some discussion it was decided that it had to be the other shut off by the other shut off... Finally the main water main was found and shut off.
Then Dad decides he will supervise the repair from the seat of his walker. As I head to the shop for parts & tools he is telling me to get the very things I'm in the process of getting. Pipe wrench, hacksaw, couplings, emery cloth, pipe dope, and a trowel. Following his explicit instructions I dig out the buried part of the pipe. Then, using the ancient hack saw with the first blade ever made, I saw nearly through the pipe below the shut off valve, remove the saw and run the emery cloth around the cut. Finish cutting the pipe, jockey it to the side, and remove the shut off above the cut.
Here I can see that the wrong pipe dope was used. The seal between the pipe and the valve had failed. I'm not saying much about this out loud, because I'm fairly sure that Dad installed this section when the house was built. Run the emery cloth over all the parts that will be put together. Cleaned and dried all the fittings. Put the correct pipe dope on the top of the valve, shoved it on, waited a few minutes, and did the same with the coupling where I had sawed the pipe apart.
Dad said to give it fifteen minutes or better to setup and then test the line, he had a ball game to watch. Put all the tools back, waited, turned on the main and tested the line. No leaks. Went in to tell Dad it was not leaking anymore.
Dad said, "Good job, Sis, you learned something today."
LOL, I did, I learned that I better pray that's the only connection he used the wrong dope on...
