Nattering

I am twisted around the axle about the low water pressure upstairs.

I called a plumber who told me what to do to fix it myself. The first three things, clogged shower head, both sides slow, bad valve, were not problems. I was getting pooped from this and a dozen other errands, so I decided I would finish in the morning. I had turned off the hot water at the tank and there was only a trickle coming out. That evening I thought at first that there were fleas jumping out of the front room rug. Then I realized they were droplets spattering from water drops falling from the plaster ceiling. The trickle was trickling into the wall and thence into the ceiling below it and had been for hours. I raced, truly raced, upstairs and screwed the valve body back in place, (fortunately I had already replaced the gasket) and then re-assembled the rest of the valve. I turned the water back on but the hot water pressure is still minimal.

I would be ready to try the third thing he suggested, removing the valve body and turning the water on at full pressure in hope of flushing out whatever sediment or other crap is clogging the pipe. But I won't do that until I figure out a way to close the gap between the valve and the wall. I am thinking of stuffing it with vinyl valve packing material. But I am discouraged and have begun procrastinating doing it.

My task is complicated by my getting up at 4 am to watch the early rounds of Wimbledon until noon, then drowsing on the couch in the afternoon.

I watched the movie "Starship Troopers" on the tube last night. A special effects movie loosely based on the novel by Robert Heinlein, it preserved the author's constitutional scheme in which only military veterans can vote or hold office. How Heinlein's constitution would handle GI's-lite like G.W. Bush is not clear. Only combat vet's? Only Purple Heart winners/losers?

It also preserved his memorable line, "Most people wouldn't recognize civic virtue if they fell over it." Lots of good nightmare material for budding insectophobes.

I got around to getting the test results of my general blood tests in May. I am as healthy as a horse. A fat, elderly, out-of-shape horse, but a horse.