It seems that time has been placed into some sort of a vise, in which it does not pass at its usual constant rate. Rather, the time seems to be squeezed and speed up when I have much to do and the vise seems to loosen and time slow down at times when I find I can accomplish little.

I think my feelings on this are partially due to the past two weekends, which have necessarily been delegated to family-related pursuits. Last weekend was taken up by the snow and subsequent winter games, while this past weekend was a flurry of activity due to health concerns.

However, in betwixt and between, I've found a few minutes here and there to get started on the property I've been trying to finish. Even so, I find myself with only a few weeks to get done and a deadline set for a couple weeks ago that's long left behind. I had to crawl under the house to get the electricity hooked up to the well pump first, which was an adventure. I put on my coveralls, which are made of a water resistant fabric—the same ones I usually wear when out playing in the snow. They are not, however, waterproof.

What with all the rain we've been having, the clay under the house had turned a bit mushy in places and downright soaked in others.

I soon found that crawling through mud is every bit as bad as I remembered it to be. On the bright side, it was also in the freezing range outside, making it all the more pleasant to be covered with wet mud. As is usually the case, I got under the house and then found out that I had accidentally left my wire cutters outside, which gave me a good reason to enjoy the crawl to and fro a couple more times in a space just big enough to slide through.

Since I lacked water to wash off with afterwards (the connection I was making was just the first step in getting the water running), I had to look for alternative methods to clean up. I found some snow out of a shady spot and use that to get the mud off my hands, although it didn't do much for making the feeling return to my fingers.

I then peeled off the coveralls, which soon turned stiff on the porch and looked ready to stand on their own. After I turned on the electricity to the pump, I soon realized that my work was just beginning. As the pump pushed water into the pressure tank, I subsequently allowed it to fill the house's pipes for the first time. That's when I started finding problems, like two leaky drains, a non-functioning shower and an ice-maker supply line that was supplying high-pressure water to the kitchen floor.

Sadly, I found the problems in that order, meaning that the ice-maker line had already been going for a couple minutes before I found it.

I also noticed that one of the connections at the pressure tank was leaking. I put those together myself, meticulously taping and tightening each until I was just positive that everything had to be perfect. It would appear that perfect fell a little short this time.

As I complained to a good friend about the water problems, he reminded me matter of factly, "Those are all easy for you to fix." That's the kind of advice I'm usually giving to other people. Just calm down and do the work, one task at a time. However, I had gotten aggravated by this time and I was looking at everything at once and feeling a little overwhelmed. The battle wasn't with the water pipes. It was that my expectation of nearing completion was affected by the problem. I had already ticked off the list and cleared all of the problems in my mind—prematurely, I soon found out..

I hired some fellows to repair a weak spot in the floor under the washer and dryer, but found out that there was more flooring that needed replacement than I first thought.

After removing the kitchen linoleum, I also found another weak spot in the floor underneath the refrigerator, quite possibly the result of the leaky water line to the ice maker. It never fails to amaze me how people will see a leak or water in the floor and just ignore it like it's going to go away on its own.

I rented out a place in Virginia and, after the tenants moved out, I found that the bathroom sink drain had been disconnected on one sink and that water was pouring out in the floor every time the spigot was activated. In fact, a section of the floor had already rotted out and had to be replaced. It took literally five minutes to fix the problem, but instead of fixing it or even calling me to fix it, the tenants just let the water run across the floor.

Why ignore the water problem until it becomes a mold problem or a floor problem, both of which are much harder to fix? As I prepare to go through the drain problems and fix the other leaks that I've found, I should be in a better frame of mind about it all this time. Even so, it's still somewhat aggravating any time you start fixing a problem and find two or three more. Just like all problems, I'm sure I'll find another one to worry about just in time for next week.
 

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