water, solid and liquid (and gas)
new (old) faucet, originally uploaded by artnoose.
Having burned through pellets quicker than I had originally calculated, we found ourselves yesterday on our last two bags, with half of winter yet to come. There's no place in the entire city of Pittsburgh to buy pellets; the closest place is in Butler, about 30 miles northwest. And they are experiencing a shortage, which meant that they had a 10 bag maximum purchase for each person. What's a household to do except rent a cargo van and all pile into it?
The weather was wretched as I drove the beast out of the city, with M. and J. adorably squished into one bucket seat, with one seatbelt alternately choking J. and cutting off the circulation to M's legs. A wintery mix they call it--- rain and sleet and snow. It was slow going up PA-8 into the small towns, trudging through slushy snow all over the ground. We finally pulled into the parking lot of the wood stove place, and I nearly slid all over the place, finally gunning it up the driveway. It was then that I decided to tell everyone that I had actually never driven in snow before.
After paying for our pellets, I managed to get the van stuck in the snow behind the store. Great. We loaded up 1200 pounds of wood pellets over the wheel well and shoveled the snow from in front of the stuck wheel. The guy at the store gunned the gas pedal while the rest of us pushed, and we got unstuck relatively easily. The drive back was better, as the snow plows had come through and the van had substantially more weight in it.
The old faucet I had been trying to restore for months had finally gotten me to the point of depression, and while browsing though the faucet chapter of a home improvement book, I noticed the recommendation for "old faucet that still leaks after repairs are made."
Replace faucet.
I went back to the second-hand building supply store and spotted a beautiful (and rather new-looking) faucet. It may have been the best $8 I ever spent. Today I installed it, and unfortunately I think the rubber ring on the hot side might be bad. Not a complete victory but hopefully an easily fixable one.