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captainsblogThe bathroom reno reached a vital turning point today, one that caused me to beg out of the Saturday writers group (in which I'd be told this sentence is too long), and one that has now added some urgency to the completion of the wall demo and re-tiling:
We took the toilet tank out.
As with most of this job, it wasn't easy. Shutting off and disconnecting the water supply went pretty well, but then came removing the bolts holding the tank to the throne proper, which likely have not been touched by a human hand since I was in diapers. I suppose that's one way of dealing with the issue if this takes longer than expected. Depends.
Initial attempts to remove them from a hominid stand-up position failed, so it was time to get down and dirty about it:
Needless to say, I did not take that photo. Eleanor did, with this caption:
Not all heroes wear capes. Some wear tee shirts and shorts and take the nuts off the bolts holding the toilet together, so we can tile around it!
I replied (later) that if I had been wearing a cape, the kittens would've just started batting at it. Sure enough, Bronzini got right up in my face when I was lying down there. They finally came out, the tank came off, and it was on to clearing the crud that was pretty much all along the wall behind the tank from its level and down.
Four hours or so later, I was done with as much as hands, shoulders, knees and toes could handle:
The splotch to the right of the remaining pink is where the former TP holder was. We've never used it since we've always had cats who think it's a permanent toy. The crap at the very bottom on both sides I just couldn't handle, so I soaked, napped and chilled while Eleanor began the retiling.
To paraphrase the famed slogan on a bridge in Trenton, New Jersey:
Ray breaks, Eleanor makes.
We do have a second shitter in the house, but it's downstairs, so she asked me to rig an indoor outhouse setup from sometime after a surgery or somesuch she had a few years ago. Then she had second thoughts about that, and next I knew she was in there, scraping off those final patches of goo and preparing to finish the tiling behind- so the tank can go back on.
We're ordering out tonight.
----
Despite the work and the sore, I'm generally feeling better emotionally than a day or so ago. Being away from the clients for over 24 hours has certainly helped with that. I also have very childlike reactions to junior high social media bullshit. Eleanor asked last night if I'd seen a post from a woman in the poetry group we're in, and I said I hadn't sent her a friend request because of how shitty I feel when someone unfriends me. That's included one other woman from that group and, more recently, a neighbor of ours who had a lot in common with Eleanor but had added me also- and then, without a word of explanation or offense, subtracted me. Turns out she also unfriended Eleanor, which I did not know until just then.
I took the plunge and sent a request to the friend in question; no response yet. Meanwhile, I'm still trying to figure out who two different people are who "accepted" friend requests from me this week. They're from two different circles of my life, and I vaguely knew of them, but I have no recollection of ever sending either a request. I do remember that earlier this week, I sent one to Dave Jauss, who is the bench coach of the Mets and who managed the team for three games this week and won two of them. This probably gives him the highest winning percentage of any manager in team history. He got this job after their regular manager got ejected, and then suspended, for a run-in with an umpire last Sunday. Dave accepted my request almost immediately. His other not-regular gig was serving as pitcher to Met star Pete Alonso during the All-Star home run derby earlier this month, serving up meatball after meatball for him to blast into the thin air of Coors Field. He says he doesn't post much, but appreciates comments from fans. I can do that:)
ETA. Tiled and everything reassembled. Truth, justice and the American way of plumbing!
We took the toilet tank out.
As with most of this job, it wasn't easy. Shutting off and disconnecting the water supply went pretty well, but then came removing the bolts holding the tank to the throne proper, which likely have not been touched by a human hand since I was in diapers. I suppose that's one way of dealing with the issue if this takes longer than expected. Depends.
Initial attempts to remove them from a hominid stand-up position failed, so it was time to get down and dirty about it:
Needless to say, I did not take that photo. Eleanor did, with this caption:
Not all heroes wear capes. Some wear tee shirts and shorts and take the nuts off the bolts holding the toilet together, so we can tile around it!
I replied (later) that if I had been wearing a cape, the kittens would've just started batting at it. Sure enough, Bronzini got right up in my face when I was lying down there. They finally came out, the tank came off, and it was on to clearing the crud that was pretty much all along the wall behind the tank from its level and down.
Four hours or so later, I was done with as much as hands, shoulders, knees and toes could handle:
The splotch to the right of the remaining pink is where the former TP holder was. We've never used it since we've always had cats who think it's a permanent toy. The crap at the very bottom on both sides I just couldn't handle, so I soaked, napped and chilled while Eleanor began the retiling.
To paraphrase the famed slogan on a bridge in Trenton, New Jersey:
Ray breaks, Eleanor makes.
We do have a second shitter in the house, but it's downstairs, so she asked me to rig an indoor outhouse setup from sometime after a surgery or somesuch she had a few years ago. Then she had second thoughts about that, and next I knew she was in there, scraping off those final patches of goo and preparing to finish the tiling behind- so the tank can go back on.
We're ordering out tonight.
----
Despite the work and the sore, I'm generally feeling better emotionally than a day or so ago. Being away from the clients for over 24 hours has certainly helped with that. I also have very childlike reactions to junior high social media bullshit. Eleanor asked last night if I'd seen a post from a woman in the poetry group we're in, and I said I hadn't sent her a friend request because of how shitty I feel when someone unfriends me. That's included one other woman from that group and, more recently, a neighbor of ours who had a lot in common with Eleanor but had added me also- and then, without a word of explanation or offense, subtracted me. Turns out she also unfriended Eleanor, which I did not know until just then.
I took the plunge and sent a request to the friend in question; no response yet. Meanwhile, I'm still trying to figure out who two different people are who "accepted" friend requests from me this week. They're from two different circles of my life, and I vaguely knew of them, but I have no recollection of ever sending either a request. I do remember that earlier this week, I sent one to Dave Jauss, who is the bench coach of the Mets and who managed the team for three games this week and won two of them. This probably gives him the highest winning percentage of any manager in team history. He got this job after their regular manager got ejected, and then suspended, for a run-in with an umpire last Sunday. Dave accepted my request almost immediately. His other not-regular gig was serving as pitcher to Met star Pete Alonso during the All-Star home run derby earlier this month, serving up meatball after meatball for him to blast into the thin air of Coors Field. He says he doesn't post much, but appreciates comments from fans. I can do that:)
ETA. Tiled and everything reassembled. Truth, justice and the American way of plumbing!
Hey
Date: 2021-07-26 11:35 am (UTC)Here's a hug. HUG :D
I have various ways of working things out that upset me: pacing around the house "gifting" my sincerest thoughts to Dave complete with the occasional expletive is my usual go to. :D He's used to it, and listens to me quietly most times. Of course the most recent episode was over the manager that quit in an e-mail, accusing us of an abusive workplace and not paying her properly. :: rolls eyes ::
For the remainder of the week, my feelings about this came and went, and I imagined I saw accusation in the eyes of the rest of the staff who suffer from anxiety issues--did this manager vent her spleen on everyone else also in a private e-mail or phone call? :: ugh ::
Then yesterday my Training Manager, who was doing a presentation at staff meeting on Connection, gave Dave and I a shout out as having proven ourselves to be great bosses and worthy of the staff's trust, encouraging the others that it is indeed safe to come to us with their issues. (HELLO, SARAH, RUN ON SENTENCE-LOL! She lives rent free in my brain.) Another staff member who has given notice to concentrate on her final year of college also talked about how grateful she was to have worked for us. A third attended the meeting having returned to our employment after a few months living out of state, and talked about how happy she was to be back. Shortly after the meeting, I received a text from the Assistant Manager I had most been feeling was judging me, with a funny little gaming thing she found on my fav game, The Last Of Us. :)
So--whatever fallout there was seems to have passed. :: falls over with relief ::
Yeah, I know I'm not supposed to be friends with my employees--but I really do care about them, and this thing was hard on me, too.
I DID need some time off work and off any obligations Saturday as well--so I can relate to the NO CLIENTS feeling. :)
AND...I'm trying to get Dave to join Dreamwidth. We'll see. :D