As most of you know the week or so after an Ironman race you shouldn’t do any swimming, biking or running. After that you should slowly start exercising again starting with swimming and then doing some easy biking and running. Since we’ve been training so hard for so long, we have a tendency to get post race blues and get antsy (is that a word?) to do something…anything!

There are lots of things out here at the cottage that I should have fixed but didn’t before the race so I’m starting to knock them off one by one. The last couple of weeks there has been a steady drip at the top of my water softener tank. Not the one that holds salt but the one that looks like an acetylene torch tank.

I took off the cover and the leak was coming from a small plastic plug. I don’t know what else it is supposed to do but if it just plugs a hole, why even have it? It has a screwdriver slot so I grabbed a screwdriver and turned it very slightly. The drip stopped and I was proud that I (mechanically inclined I’m not!) was able to fix it so easily. I came back a half hour later to check it to make sure the dripping had stopped and it was dripping much faster than it had been before I messed with it.

I figured it loosened up on its own so I tightened it a slight bit more. Just then the plastic plug came flying out along with a stream of water that hit me in the face and chest and I was immediately soaked. The stream went all the way across the basement (15 feet or so) so I had to get it stopped. I put my hand against the stream of water, went under a power cord (dangerous?) and shut off the water to the whole house. All my conditioning beer got wet and I didn’t want to lose the cardboard cases so I had to move them to “high ground” and get everything else away from the inch of standing water.

After a trip to Hastings to get a $3.29 plug, some salt for the softener and a new water filter I was back in business. The new plug was engineered a little differently so it didn’t break with very little pressure. I put it in, the leak stopped, and I was on to my next repair job.

I had three bags of salt so I carried them in from the car and put them in the softener. I grabbed the first one from the car and carried it downstairs on my left shoulder. Not a problem. When I got to the softener I didn’t have anything to cut the plastic salt bag with so I grabbed an awl from the pegboard where I keep my screwdrivers. I put the salt bag on the edge of the tank and stuck the bag with the awl and pulled it to the side. The bag opened and salt came pouring out into the tank, but I started to lose my grip on the bag. I don’t know what spazoid move I made but I ended up trying to grab the bag with both hands and I stabbed myself in the finger with the awl. It was a little painful since my fingers were covered in salt.

I got that to stop bleeding and I was on my way to the next project. The water filter is right next to the water softener so I thought it would be a good time to change that. I turned off the water to the filter, pressed the pressure relief valve (yes, I read the directions and that’s what it said to do), and took off the canister. The old filter came out and had a rubber gasket on the end so I salvaged that and cleaned the canister thoroughly.

I took it to the basement, inserted the filter, put on the gasket and screwed it back on. It said not to overtighten so I didn’t. I turned the water back on and water, again, sprayed all over the place. After a couple more tries it dawned on me that the old filter was one style (that needed a gasket) and the new filter was another style (that didn’t need a gasket). It didn’t say that anywhere in the directions but, if you’ve read any directions lately, you know they sound like they’re written by someone in a foreign country that doesn’t have a good command of the English language. Gasket out…filter in…didn’t leak…success!!

With that kind of track record it concerns me that I have a couple of projects that may be dangerous. The stool in the upstairs bathroom has some rust stains that I just can’t get out. I’ve tried everything and I think the rust is etched into the porcelain. I need to change the stool and the seat, but I’ve never done it. The instructions on the internet say an idiot can do it (they don’t say that, but they do imply it) but they haven’t met me. I’m concerned that I’ll make the switch, have a huge water leak, and create a costly water repair job to the entire downstairs ceilings and walls.

The other job is on the roof. The coaxial cable to the basement doesn’t work so I can’t get Dish Network down there. When I’m riding on the trainer I listen to the oldies on Ch 6005 (Ch 5 on Sirius) so I’d be able to hear it on the downstairs TV without turning the sound way up on the upstairs TV and blasting out the neighborhood. The ladder I would use to fix the cable is one that Jean’s Dad used to use and it’s seen better days. With that and my post bike wreck sense of balance, I could lay in the front yard for days before anyone came by to pick up Humpty Dumpty.

Maybe I should just clean the refrigerator and call it good?

Just (Finally Warm And Able To Move My Fingers) Jack