Jan 3rd - karma

Jan 3rd
Sprinkled / drizzle / mist most of the day.  Water has stopped now but yard is a soaked swamp.  Oscar wants to go out and play ball.  He has no concept of cold - wet - mud.  He doesn't care:  "Throw the ball!"
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Mail was weak today. I received a notice from a magazine that I just subscribed to and have never received my first copy.  They think now is the time to suggest I re-up for an additional year at a $1 savings.  Wouldn't you think it would be better to wait until my first copy arrives?  They don't; then, they whine that so much of their budget is spent on notifications.  Also received a catalog from Woodwind Brasswind.  I do enjoy looking through music catalogs.
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There was a show on TV several years back about a bad guy who was turning his life around because of his newly learned love of KARMA.  Good things happen to good people.  I've had my doubts about that premise over the years.  It never seems that things get better when I behave better.  Let me give you an example.  Is Karma chasing me?
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About a month or so ago, before Thanksgiving, my wife and I made a motorhome trip.  On the last day of the trip I made a stupid mistake and the slideout hit a storage door on its way to being closed.  My stupid error.  The door was okay, but a piece of trim and hardware for the door were damaged.  I figure it will be $1,000 before that part of the motorhome is repaired properly.

We  got home and within a week I had the following problems...by the numbers.
1.  Motorhome storage door damaged.
2.  Motorhome trim piece damaged.
3.  Motorhome awning has quit retracting and must be retracted by hand while standing on a rickity chair or table....no ladder with me.

The remainder are home problems:
4.  All of sudden there was water all over the floor of the master bath.  This room is on the north wall.  The sewer line picks up stuff there and exits the building with 8 foot.  Water was everywhere.  The toilet was overflowing.  Even when it was not flushed, water came out from under - where the toilet is attached to the floor.  Now I know there is a wax seal under there, but, apparently,  the water pressure was more than the seal could hold.
     My wife had washed clothes and this water was coming up from below.   The floor of the master closet had to be emptied, all was wet.   Rugs, boxes, you name it - all wet with slimy water.  I am sure you can imagine the mess.  It was everything you could imagine.   What to do?
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The house is on a septic system.  The pipe goes out the north side of the house for about `10 feet then makes a sharp right down to the septic tanks about 20 ft or so.  In my mind I could see that the septic tanks had filled and were backing up into the house.  When something like this happens, you can see all possibilities.   I made a mistake.  I flushed the toilet in the other half of the house to see if it worked.  It did fine - well other than crud that was backing up into that bathtub.  All of the sewer lines were full.
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I went outside and opened the clean-out cap.  I expected to have water pushing against the cap and a geyser created with crud all over me and the yard.  Nothing.  the pipe showed a tiny tiny bit of flowing water outside.  This meant that the problem had to be between me (the sewer cap) and the master toilet - a 10 - 15 foot piece of pipe 4" in diameter - FULL and waiting.

Years past, I purchase one of those drain snakes which was run with an electric drill.  I began the drilling.  Nothing.  5 feet in - 6 feet - nothing happened to the end of the 25 foot drain snake.  I slowly backed it out.  All of a sudden there was a whosh.  "Whosh" is a word in spite of my computer spell check saying it isn't.  Water and goop came flushing through the pipe as God had intended for it to do.  When the flow slowed, I ran the snake inside again and again.

I'm always afraid that tree roots will invade my pipes.  My machine did not pull out even one tiny twig.  There was something solid inside the pipe holding back all that water.  I don't know what it was.  It would be nice to know though.  The next day I purchased some stuff which goes into the drain to kill tree roots - ya never know for sure.   It cost around $25.  All of the wet stuff cost even more in an emotional toll.

5.  When I drove to town to get the root killer - my car put up a sign that the tire pressure was low on a tire.  I stopped, looked, and moved on.  Later I found the right front tire to be down to 15 lbs pressure.  An annoyance for sure.

6.  Next day I started to weed eat.  I have a good gas weed eater.  Today the starting rope grabbed the throttle wire dislodging it.  I have tried since then to reinstall the wire properly.  Someday I will have to pay someone to fix it.  The machine still runs; it still eats weeds; but gas control is a prob.

7. So I take the big lawn mower/tractor out to mow.  Not 10 minutes into the session, I hear a noise.  The belt has come off the blades.  Nothing mows.  This took me - a real handyman - a couple hours to reinstall.

8.  The door to the bathroom has started to swing.  If it is not shut properly, it swings wide open.  The door to the bedroom as shifted enough that the catch won't catch.   This allows Sadie to open the door whenever I am asleep.   Agreed this Karma is really 8 & 9.  Still just doors.

9.  Our church has a new choir director.  I was on the committee to select.  I think we chose the best one - she has a PhD in music - has done opera stuff on a college campus and other good things.  The Karma thing is that for some reason right at the very beginning of her career here, she set the choir up to go to both services.   I do not do well at 8 o'clock in the morning.  This is a bet of a stretch to be listed under bad Karma, because I believe she is the right person for this job.

10.  Before Thanksgiving, we had storms.  For 2 days our electricity went out.  One day was about 10 hours worth - it came back on  - next day off for several more hours.

11.  I had to go buy a battery for my tractor/mower.  Poof!!  no power.

12.  I wrote myself notes about the Karma so I wouldn't forget.   I went to Home Depot.  As I exited and piled a few items in the back of my Flex, a car drives up really slow and a window is lowered.  Two Spanish ladies in the front a a couple of kids in the back.  The driver starts in asking if I could help them buy gas so they could continue their trip - some type of disaster back home.  These ladies spoke good English.
       When I didn't respond, the driver lady pulled a ring off her finger - flashy ring - and started telling me how it was a heirloom and she'd let me have it if only I could give them $10.   At this exact moment I noticed the other lady slip a flashy ring off her finger and hide it under her dress.  What a con.  The little kids were watching from the back seat.  What a lesson they were learning.  I told them "no"  and got into my car.   They drove slowly away - I am sure they were looking for another old guy to fleece.

13.  To end this, November rolled around.  We went to Canton to see the flea market.   I was wearing my floppy hat and looking at puppies.   A young boy - say 4th grade area - walked up to me and said, "Are you my Uncle Jake?"  What?  I looked at him as he asked again.  He told me that his Uncle Jake wore a hat like mine and had taken him on a trip through New Mexico.  Was I his Uncle Jake?
      Quickly, I looked for the hidden cameras.  Everything seemed normal.  I told him that I was not his Uncle Jake.  We had a couple more words and he walked off to be with family.   Nobody looked over and broke into laughter.  Me thinks it was a legit question by a legit young boy.
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With that Karma and I close.
Dogs are fed;  night is nigh; leftovers await my tongue; nighttime TV to watch; and video games to be played.  See ya,
m