Well . . . where was I? in A small but passable life.

The visit back east was great. I stayed with my brother and his wife at their new house. Daughter brought the grandson, Rowan Darren, out to visit quite a few times over the nine days I was there. I spent many hours holding him while he slept. There’s nothing better in the world than that.

I was rather blasé about being back home. Back to the usual routine. But like always there seems to be unexpected events. Always something to keep you on your toes, so to speak.

On the 22nd the A/C went out. As in blowing warm not cool air. I called the A/C folks. They came right out. The kid held up a capacitor and explained what it was for and why it went to shit. Okay. It was replaced and he sold me a surge protector to maybe keep the new one from going out. Okay. Long story short, $338. That’s with the extended warranty Mom paid $900 for. I live in the desert. One would have to be a serious hard-ass to live here without A/C during the summer.

And the evening before last I heard running water when I’d went into the trailer. The water heater? I went outside and opened the hatch. Yep. I shut off the water and power. I drained the tank and mopped up the water. The next morning I removed the water heater and finished mopping up. I scootered to Ace Hardware and bought a double-ended threaded nipple ($2.97) and used that to connect the “in” to the “out”. I turned the water back on. Finished. For now. The thing was original to the trailer. Twenty-one years old. Almost four times longer than they usually last around here.

This morning I got to thinking about the water heater that’s up in the attic of the shed I’m sleeping in. I went up and got a closer look. Yep. It’s the right everything for a replacement. And I measured the hatch to get it down. A couple of inches to spare. I don’t believe that its ever had water in it. The folks had it installed because the plan was to put a sink in a bathroom out here. That never happened and the washer has always been cold water. So, hopefully the thing isn’t full of water. There is a shut-off valve, in the closed position, so maybe I’ll get lucky. And that’ll be a project for the coming Winter. It’s too hot to even breathe up there right now.

One of Daughter’s friends who’s babysitting a lot of fiction books for us loaned me a book. An 883 page hardcover that I’d brought back in my knapsack. So far, so good.

There is an old twenty gallon water heater sitting out front by the curb. I don’t know exactly what I’m supposed to do with it. Where to take it or how to take it. Or just see how long it sits there before somebody says something about it?

I’ve been looking into this:

https://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/research/indepth/ibonds/res_ibonds.htm

At 9.62% interest. Where else would pay that much?

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got.