Dan Antion

When Machines Go South – #SoCS

They make the best chowder at the bar.
One flag – every American – flying proud.
Looks like someone was trying to sleep while I was writing about the caboose

It’s Saturday, if the weatherfolk were correct, it’s raining and it’s not quite 50°f (10°c). Still, it’s a great time to relax at the bar, enjoy an adult beverage and share some conversation. Of course, we’ll see if we can work in the Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt that Linda G. Hill gave us.

“Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is ‘boo.’ Find a word with the letters ‘boo’ in it or use ‘boo’ as is and base your post on it. Enjoy!”

Base my post on it? Hmmm.

Oh well, if we were having a beer, we’d stumble around some confusion.

“Good afternoon my young friend. You’re just in time to buy me a glass of John Howell’s Bourbon.”

“Ha! Perhaps I should have come later.”

“Actually, I thought you were going to be late today.”

“Late? Dan’s never late for a cold beer and a hot bowl of chowder on a cool Saturday. You boys having your usual choices?”

“We are Cheryl, and since I have the tab, let’s have two bowls of chowder. In the meantime, I’ll try to figure out why David thought I was going to be late.”

“At first I thought you’d still be responding to comments about the caboose photos you shared on Thursday.”

“People did seem to like that little car, but something else must have made you worry.”

“Yes, I saw you dragging a washer and dryer in your trailer. I figured you’d be busy installing those, and I know how plumbing projects can go off the rails, as it were.”

“You’re close, David. In fact, the reason I was dragging those appliances around was out of fear that a plumbing project would go south, but not the way you think.”

“Here’s your beer, Dan and easy on the ‘going south’ as a way of expressing failure. I’m from the south, remember…”

“Actually, Cheryl, the expression ‘going south’ originated with several Native American tribes long before there was a south to go to. It’s what they said when someone was dying.”

“Well, thanks for that bit of clarification, David. You really can be charming. Here’s your bourbon, your seltzer and your ice.”

“No cherries?”

“Sorry, they went south overnight. I’ll see if I can find a new jar.”

“Cheers Dan. Now, if you would be so kind to explain how fear of plumbing failure caused you to take your appliances for a ride.”

“Well, David. We had been planning to replace our washer and dryer…”

“Forgive me for interrupting, Dan, but can you start the story a little closer to the end? I’d appreciate it.”

“Why? I’m paying for all the bourbon you can drink.”

“Good point. Go on then, by all means.”

“My point was that before we could install a new washer, I needed to replace the shutoff valve.”

“You mean that doohickey behind the washer that turns off the water?”

“I was trying to avoid using technical terms but yes, that doohickey.”

“Do you actually use that thing?”

“My wife does, but the one we had was old and had gotten very hard to operate.”

“Couldn’t you just repair it?”

“If I had bought the right valve twenty-eight years ago, I could have, but I bought a special valve from Home Depot instead of the industry-standard Watts valve.”

“Why? And why is that a problem?”

“Home Depot was new to the area; I was enamored with the ‘Big Box’ concept. What I didn’t understand is that after a year, they’d never have that valve, or its replacement parts ever again.”

“I see. And the Watts valve?”

“Those have been around forever, and they actually come with an order form if you want to buy the repair kit. Some companies just have the right approach to the market.”

“The end, Dan. Are we anywhere near the end?”

“We’re almost there. Since I wasn’t sure replacing that valve would go according to plan, I wasn’t comfortable ordering the washer to be installed or the old one to be carted away. If I was still moving a washer in and out of position, I didn’t want it to be the new one.”

“So you were hauling the old one to the dump this morning.”

“Well, the recycling center, but yes.”

“Don’t the pick those things up in your town?”

“They do. They pick up bulky items each week, but they only pick up metal on the fourth Friday of each month. The same day we had our machines delivered.”

“You could wait until November, what would that be, the twenty-sixth?”

“It would be the twenty-seventh, pushed back due to Thanksgiving. I didn’t want to warehouse the old machines that long.”

“Understandable but dragging them around in the rain couldn’t have been much fun.”

“That’s why I came here.”

“You boys ready for another round?”

“We are Cheryl, and perhaps some wings.”

If the thought of going, particularly driving south reminds you of a song, look below the gallery for a song by Suzy Bogguss – or is that Boogguss?

The trees around here lost a lot of their leaves during two days of strong wind and rain.
Maddie on a car[et of color
The storms brought down tons of pine needles
Pine needles and pine cones – everywhere.
Maddie was happy to be walking. We missed three walks due to the storms.
You can see the sprinkler being cleared just to the right of the sign.
They are blowing out the sprinkler lines.
We are walking a little later these days, but the sun was still hiding behind the clouds.
Not much left of this tree’s leaves
The sky is still churning with wind and clouds
No rain today, and less wind, so we were able to go for our walk.
That’s a compressor so they must be planning to blow the water out of the sprinkler lines.
We’re seeing through the trees now
The bunny is blending in very well.
Baby Smoke! He’s still elusive but I got one good picture.
Suzy Bogguss “Drive South”

74 comments

  2. I am always pleased to read how handy you are Dan, and how much you get done. I’ve had the new toilet, basin and other bits and pieces that need to be plumbed into the boys bathroom sitting on my patio for about 2 months now. I believe I am going to have to call the plumber myself in shear desperation. My husband is waiting for the shower to be delivered …

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  3. Hope new washing machine and dryer are installed and running smoothly. There’s always a laundromat somewhere, but it’s a scary thought to have to go there and use machines that everyone else uses.

    I’ll say a lot of pine needles came down! Baby Smoke is so cute. He needs to concentrate on filling out his tail! Bunny is quite camouflaged….I had to look twice before I saw him.

    Glad you and Maddie are able to walk again. Temperatures will be dropping so Maddie may need to wear a sweater!

    Happy Halloween! 👻🧟‍♂️🎃
    Ginger

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    • The good thing, Ginger is that Maddie loves wearing her buffalo plaid vest 😊

      Baby Smoke really needs to work on that tail. He looks like a stretched out rat,

      The washer and dryer seem to be working fine, and the plumbing passed inspection by The Editor. I’m off to the recycling center in half an hour- the trailer is already loaded.

      I hope you have only treats this weekend.

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    • We are still getting dumped on. I loaded the. Stuff in the trailer yesterday so we didn’t have to do it in the rain. At least I’m not worried about damaging the units. I will be getting wet 😏

      I hope you have a great weekend, GP.

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  6. I’m hoping on a future post, you share what brand washer and dryer you bought and the Editor’s review. I survived a close call about a year ago, but I know I’m on borrowed time until I have to replace mine. Same weather here, wet and gloomy. We saw the sun for an hour or so yesterday, and it was a thrill. We had clam chowder last night, and it was delicious. Happy recycling, and I am always grateful that I can haul appliances there and pay my fee to have it disposed of. It’s a good service. Happy weekend!

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  7. Incredible fix-it process, Dan. Before moving into our home, we lived in a new rental for over a month. We found out the hard way that the hot/cold water lines had been mislabeled by the installers and thus improperly connected to the washer. The little things of life can have big consequences. Thanks for sharing your step-by-step process. Wish I had your talent. Have a great day! 🎃

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    • That would be a problem, Gwen, especially for clothes you need to wash in cold water.

      I did once hook up the hot water line to a toilet supply. My wife kinda liked it but I still had the wall open so I fixed that mistake.

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    • I don’t enjoy plumbing, Maggie but this job was such a mess, I couldn’t even guess what it would have cost. I was most upset about having to redo something I’d already done because they don’t sell replacement parts.

      The washer and dryer were both on their last legs. It was time.

      I hope you have a nice weekend.

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  10. Love the long shadows and the flag, Dan, but the highlight for me, like for so many others, was the baby Smokey–so cute. Your plumbing discussion reminds me that I have shut-off valves that I need to replace for several toilets. I have done one already and found that quarter-turn valves are much better than the ones that they originally put in twenty-five years ago or so.

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    • Baby Smokey certainly is the star of the show, Mike. The quarter turn valves are a type of ball valve. I replaced two sets of valves with ball valves during this project. They work much better and last much longer.

      I hope you have a great weekend.

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  11. Cheers, Dan and David. What a delightful way to begin my Saturday! Good luck with all that machinery exchange, with its doohickeys and flamboozles. I spent so many years as ‘assistant-in-chief’ on all such projects. I once helped hubby to change the rear axle on a used (tank) Oldsmobile we owned. 🤦‍♀️

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    • You’re a good partner, Cheryl. Well let you off with serving virtual bourbon (but please find David some cherries). The Editor helped with these projects. My favorite part was “stand here while I go turn the water back on. Tell me if anything leaks.”

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  12. Interesting info on the origins of “going south” and which dohickey to buy. Sounds like going with standard parts is good. Thanks for taking your washer to the recycle center. I like the photo of Maddie on the leaf carpet.

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    • I’m glad you liked this JoAnna. Our town recycles lots of stuff and it’s free to the residents. They make a little money from the metal, which helps defray the cost of stuff like fluorescent bulbs and batteries. It’s a great service. Maddie likes walking in the leaves.

      I hope you have a nice weekend.

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  15. ‘can you start the story a little closer to the end?’–I had to laugh at that line. I am a ‘cut to the chase’ kinda gal, so those words melted my heart. Good on you, David! Maddie on the carpet of color is so pretty! And Baby Smoke….what a cutie! The dreaded pine needle drop. I don’t miss that at all. My neighbor and I had three pine trees that straddled our property line. The needles always fell on our driveway, and I live on an incline so walking down our drive on pine needles….you just prayed you didn’t slip and fall. The squirrels chewed on the cones and dropped the ‘cobs’ on the ground–such sloppy eaters. One tree was toppled during a hurricane. The other two we paid to take down. I don’t miss them in the least. Have a great weekend, Dan.

    Liked by 1 person

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    • We had four huge (90′) pine trees when we moved in. We finally had them taken down. What a mess those needles made. And then, every 7 years or so, they drop like 10 times as many cones.

      Good yo know you and David are kindred spirits. Wrap it up, Dan.

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  17. Interesting shot with that pinecone – did you really find it standing up like that? Hope you got that valve fixed, your new washer installed and the old one carted away. Houses can be such a pain-in-the…; mine is definitely going south at the moment, but at least (knock on wood) it’s not sinking into the bowels of hell yet.

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    • The pine cone was standing up like that. If I tried to pose it, Maddie would get involved. I took a pic on the way out, but the sun was coming up in the way back.

      New washer in. Old one at the recycle center. Valve is working.

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  18. A couple laugh-out-loud moments in this for me, not just in your Saturday bar, but in the comments. Thanks for the laughs on this dark Saturday. The photos are great — you sure make the most of a morning sky. Of course, you have Maddie as creative consultant, I’m sure.

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  22. Native Americans went south to die ? I never knew that ; but WWI soldiers went west when they died . Some people go up and others down , I’ve heard . So what about north east ? Stay healthy , Dan !

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  25. Hi Dan – the song definitely gets my vote … be she Bogguss, or Booguss … it’s delightful. The chowder – you can always offer me! Cheers from a gloomy, damp … 31st – Hilary

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  26. One flag-every American-flying proud. That’s great, Dan! I have to agree with David that doohicky is a great word. Beautiful sky and trees in your photo gallery. I love the changing season.

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  27. The swirling clouds and golden sunrise was fitting for Halloween. The colors are still holding on there even though a lot of the leaves haven’t been able to hold on.

    I’m guessing the new valve went in okay and isn’t leaking. It’s so fun to get new appliances then reality sets in and it’s time to get them working. I hope the new washer and dryer are trouble free for a very long time!

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    • The plumbing was a project and a half, but it went well. New machines are in and working. The Editor is getting used to the washer. Not everything is 100% to her liking but this was as close as she could get.

      Our colors started out blah but done made a good show late.

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  28. Super! I’m guessing it’s all sorted now?
    The harvest gold set that came with the house are still in the garage 8 years later. Usta be you could call a guy to come take them for free. These guys don’t exist anymore. Now there are guys you pay to take it away. I think we’re workin toward rentin a dumpster :(

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