May 15, 1992
Dear Everyone:
Friday
(Finally! Some Fridays take
longer to arrive than others.)
Question: what's Irish and stays outside all year?
Answer: Paddy O’Furniture.
Now that Spring is here and Summer could strike at
any moment, “Jeannie” has been looking for a way to shade the sunny side
of her townhouse. What she would
really like, of course, is a redwood trellis/arbor, complete with
15-year-old vines to keep the patio cool.
But she doesn't have the money (who does?) for it, at least, not
this year.
So, we were looking for something a little less
expensive that would do the job for a few years at least.
And the most likely candidates
seemed to be some sort of awning or umbrella.
An awning would have to be
attached to the side of the house, something that stucco walls do not
lend themselves to easily. Plus,
there's probably something in the rules about building add-ons to the
outside of your condo, or, rather, about not building add-ons.
(There always are.)
That pretty much left us with umbrellas.
Last week, while I was at the
hardware store, looking for tiny light bulbs for my makeup mirror, I
noticed that they had roped off part of the parking lot for a display of
outdoor furniture, including umbrellas.
However, I wasn't about to make a trip to the
hardware store just to look at umbrellas when I could kill two birds
with one stone, so to speak. I'd
been meaning to replace the washers in the kitchen sink for months.
This, of course, required taking
out about half my "tool chest", pliers, wrenches, screwdrivers (straight
and phillips), the Complete-Fix-It-Yourself-Manual and a lot of paper
towels.
It also required dragging out everything that's
stored under the kitchen sink, which is the main reason I hadn't done it
yet. Nevertheless, with garbage
can, cleaning supplies, bug spray, etc., and repair manual, spread out
over every available square inch of counter space, and with much yanking
on wrench handles (why do they put these things in so
tight?), I finally had faucet
stem in hand and “Jeannie” and I went to the hardware store.
While she looked at outdoor furniture, I got one of
the "friendly hardware men" to locate the correct stem repair kit.
Total expenditure:
$1.40, including tax.
In the meantime, “Jeannie” had
borrowed my pocket calculator to figure umbrella prices.
Back at my place, I replaced both the washer and
the O-ring (slippery little suckers!) On each of the faucet handles and
had “Jeannie” keep a wary eye on the sink while I gingerly turned the
water back on. Turn the water
back off and tightened a few
things. Then turned the water on
again…success!
You no longer have to turn the cold water
three-quarters on to get even a dribble, and the pipes don't go
bump-bump-bump anymore.
That accomplished, we went across the street to
Kmart to look at more
outdoor furniture and umbrellas and to do a little shopping.
Then “Jeannie”, the career
comparison shopper, went off to check out some more places that might
offer shady things.
The next thing I heard on the subject was a message
on my phone machine from “Jeannie” who announced that, not only had she
found an umbrella that fit her exacting specifications and budget
constraints, but she had already hauled the thing home (in that tiny
CRX!???) And put it together all by herself!
On Sunday, I dropped by to see and, sure enough, a
nine-foot-diameter umbrella had taken up residence on the patio.
It's a very nice one, with
golden-oak pole and spokes and a forest green canvas cover that's
guaranteed to block the maximum amount of sun.
What's more, since it doesn't
carry a table around its middle, come winter, she can easily folded down
and stored in the garage, thus ensuring that it will last for many
seasons. I was impressed.
At work, things are busy without being too frantic.
I spent yesterday training people
in “Livermore” on this, that and the other.
Training is remarkably tiring,
considering that all you do all day is talk, and talk, and talk.
Love, as always,
Pete
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