Tales & Trails of a Traveling Wiseguy

This morning as I arose from bed I felt a moment of nostalgia. "It's Christmas morning," I remembered. "What presents have magically appeared under the tree?"

Of course it's been decades since I believed in Santa Claus or presents magically appearing beneath a Christmas tree. It's also been almost as many decades since I actually believed in Christmas. ....Oh, I don't deny that Christmas exists. It's a religious holiday that's important to one of the world's large religions. I'm just not a religious person.

Bah, Humbug?

I've written about Christmas with the tag Bah Humbug on LiveJournal for years. Partly that's a personal inside joke, dating back years now to when I was in graduate school. The preeminent technical conference in my field had its annual submissions deadline in early January. Late December was crunch time to finish up our research and writing. That year I was working on not one, nor two, but three papers for the conference. It was mega crunch time. I recall I went to the lab sometime around 1pm on December 24th and left to go home at 7am, having pulled an all-nighter (one of many). "I'm part of the Bah-Humbug Brigade!" I chuckled to myself as I settled down to sleep around 8 on Christmas morning.

Over the years since then I've kept Bah, Humbug as a meme to encapsulate my feeling of alienation at this time of year. Christmas is familiar to me because I grew up in a religious family celebrating it, and simultaneously foreign because I'm not longer religious and haven't celebrated it for years. At Christmastime I feel like I'm on the outside looking in through the glass with a tinge of longing— as well as a tinge of disgust at what it's become.

Of course I didn't invent the phrase Bah, Humbug. It entered our cultural lexicon with Charles Dickens's classic 1843 novel, A Christmas Carol. "Bah, humbug!" was the memorable refrain of the main character, Ebenezer Scrooge, a greedy man who scoffed at the religious significance of Christmas to anyone. He thought it was theft that his employees wanted even one day off to celebrate at home with their families.

I chuckle at saying "Bah, humbug!" but I'm not Scrooge. I don't deny the importance of Christmas to the 2-billion-plus Christians in the world... or the people who've embraced the American cultural version of Christmas as a month-long celebration of consumerism (oops, there's my tinge of disgust coming trough). I'm just not one of them. But if you are, I'm happy for you.

Most Years I Travel. This Year We're Home-bound.

Another way I'm not like Scrooge is that I don't intend to work on Christmas. ...Not since that one time years ago in grad school, anyway! 🙃

Most years I take advantage of the time off my employer provides, and the generally slow place of business at this time of year, to travel. For example, last year Hawk and I were hiking in Panama on Christmas. The year before we were touring Sydney, Australia on foot. In 2022 we visited the California desert and spent Christmas day climbing huge sand dunes, visiting an abandoned train station, driving a 4x4 trail, and exploring lava tube caves. In 2021 we were on the beach in Waikiki, Hawaii at Christmas.

In fact the last time we didn't go anywhere over Christmas was 5 years ago. That was back in the depths of the Coronavirus pandemic, before the vaccines were available to more than a handful of lucky recipients.

Indeed, what December 2020 and now have in common is that Being Sick Sucks. Oh, fortunately it's not another raging pandemic that's keeping us home this year. It's just the uncertainty around Hawk's recovery from foot surgery a few months ago. And it's just as well we didn't try to plan anything around that as she suffered a major setback a few days ago that left her unable even to walk inside the house for a few days.

This evening is the start of Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights. We lit the first candle on a menorah to mark it.



...And when I saw "we", I mean Hawk. Hawk lit the candle and said the brief blessing in Hebrew. She grew up in a Jewish family. I'm just supporting her because I'm married into a Jewish family.

For more insight on what Hanukkah is (hint: it is NOT "Jewish Christmas" 😅) check out this gentile's guide to Hanukkah I wrote a few years ago.

Our clothes washing machine has been on time-out since Wednesday evening when it leaked. Since then Hawk has been shopping around online figuring out what washer we'd it with. We were deliberative about buying this one 10+ years ago; we'll be deliberative about the one that replaces it. Meaning, we've bought a short subscription to Consumer Reports (again) and we're checking reviews to select models that have above-average ratings for cleaning effectiveness, water and power efficiency, and low noise, at modest cost.

But before we click "Buy Now" we figured we'd give our current washer another chance. It seemed just barely possible, and an experience plumber who helped us look at it agreed, that water pressure spikes from water main work in the neighborhood that day could've made the leak a fluke. Today I finally had the energy to pull out the washer and take a look at it.

I unplugged the washer, disconnected the drain and supply lines, and taped all the cables and pipes out of the way. Then I trundled the washer out of the laundry closet. I had to unhook a fan-fold door to help get it out. (Little problem there. I've adjusted, removed and installed fan-fold doors in our house before.)

The floor beneath the washer is pretty messy. You can see that in the photo above. The mess there is years of dust bunnies, presumably from the dryer, mixed with water from the washer's leak a few days ago. Once I had the washer out of the way it wasn't too hard to clean it up with a water spritzer and a roll of paper towels.

I took the opportunity while the washer was moved out of the closet to do some additional cleaning. I pulled out the soap tray and gave it a thorough cleaning in the sink, with soap and hot water. We've never done a full cleaning on it, and was moldy. I also cleaned the rubber grommet and around the glass window of the door where it makes a seal, in case dirt or grime there was the source of the leak.

Speaking of finding the source of the leak, I tipped the washer onto its face to see if I could find a leak leak on the underside. No dice; the underside has a metal cover bolted in place with several bolts. I decided to skip it.

Again, our thinking here with cleaning up the washer was not just to clean up the space for a replacement but to give the old washer one more try. Just in case the leak was not a fluke, though— and I've got to admit, the chances it was just a fluke are, like, 1 in 10— I went out and bought a spill pan for the washer. It was $31 plus tax at Home Depot for one that's cheap plastic but fits nicely.



Here you can see the washer moved back into place, sitting atop its new spill catcher. I've got a (light) load of laundry in there. I'll know in about 90 minutes how much of a fluke Wednesday's leak was.

Update: The load of wash completed with no leaks.

When I spotted a new leak in the ceiling of the kitchen pantry yesterday, I was pissed. Pissed, because it was just two days after we'd finished getting another leak repaired. A repair that we'd waited 8 weeks to get started. And this new leak was occurring just 2 feet over from the previous one! Had the repairmen screwed up the repair that badly?

I did a bit of troubleshooting on the problem myself. It didn't seem like it was the same leak as before just 2 feet over. It seemed like it might actually be a problem with the washing machine... which, yes, is about 2 feet over from where the toilet upstairs is! But could it really be such a coincidence that our washer sprung a leak right after the toilet was fixed? And right after plumbers were working on the water main outside all day? I was too pissed to want to run a full troubleshooting process myself. Thankfully the owner of the plumbing company agreed to come over.

The plumber and I worked through the troubleshooting process together. He saw my reason for suspecting the washing machine— dampness on the floor underneath it— and helped me shift it around a bit to pinpoint the problem more precisely. It wasn't a loose hookup problem or a leak in a supply hose or drain hose. It was some kind of leak from the body of the washing machine itself.

So, good news/bad news: It's not a plumbing leak. It won't be another $13,000 job that takes 8 weeks to schedule. But it looks like now we need to buy a new washer.

There's a classic line from the 1975 movie Jaws. After the titular great white shark appears on the screen for the first time, actor Roy Schneider turns to the sailors hunting the monster and dead-pans, "You're going to need a bigger boat."

I'm not sure that line was all that big when the movie was first released in 1975, or even a few years later when it was making the rounds through theaters again and became popular among my childhood friends, but in recent years it has become a meme.



And, OMG, this movie is now 50 years old, and a throwaway, ad-libbed line from it is an Internet meme?

Yes, the line was unscripted. Behind-the-scenes stories tell us that the actors and crew were frustrated about the small boat used for filming scenes at sea. They felt the producers were being excessively cheap because the small size made it hard to work with given all the things involved in filming— the cameras, lights, microphones, and all the crew to operate them. "You're/We're going to need a bigger boat" became a running joke among the film crew, who repeated it every time the small watercraft made their work difficult to do.

Then actor Roy Schneider, playing the police chief in the story, ad-libbed the line during filming the scene where the great white shark, Jaws, appeared on camera for the first time. The cast and crew LOLed. Director Steven Spielberg thought it was funny, too— though without the guffaws from behind the camera. He worked it into the movie with some extra footage to set up the (now classic) line properly.

So, here we are 50 years later now, and this line just became relevant to me, personally. We're going to need a bigger fridge!



That's what I said to Hawk the other night after we'd ordered in pizza. Mine had come in an oversized box (hers was smaller). When I went to put the leftovers in the fridge, using the original boxes for simplicity sake, mine was a few inches too wide to fit into our generously sized side-by-side refrigerator!

Of course we didn't buy a new fridge. 🤣 I mean, the characters in the movie were facing a killer shark, and they didn't buy a new boat. All I'm facing here is half a leftover pizza. 🤣 I stacked the slices on a small baking pan and wrapped it in foil to keep for a day or two.

The work crew was in our house again Wednesday. Recall that on Day 1, Tuesday, they stripped the tile off the floor to repair the leak damage underneath. Today they laid the new tile.



The tiles still have spacers between them (those little plastic loops) because the mortar underneath them is still drying. The hole in the floor over toward the left side is where the toilet drain flange will be installed and the toilet will sit.



Downstairs they patched up the bits of ceiling and wall they cut open to repair damage from the leak. The drywall patches look great. I mean, they're not painted yet, so that part doesn't look great, but the workmen did a fine job of mudding and sanding the gaps between drywall pieces that it looks smooth and continuous. Once they repaint— which is planned for Monday— this area will look like nothing ever happened.

Our kitchen pantry has been out of service for the past several weeks waiting on plumbing repairs for the toilet. Until just recently we've been limping along with the pantry contents stacked up on one end of our dining room table. We never intended that to be a long-term solution... but we also never expected it to take the plumbers nearly eight weeks to come back around and start the repairs. So late last week we shopped online and ordered a couple of inexpensive shelves to put in the dining room as a temporary measure.



The shelves arrived Sunday night. We started putting them together almost right away.

Yes, like most furniture today— most affordable furniture, anyway— these shelves arrived in a flat-pack box and we had to assemble them ourselves. In the photo above and the first one below you can see us bolting things together with the help of hex wrenches (included).



What do I mean by affordable furniture? Well, as we were looking at various comes-in-a-flat-box, assembly-required shelves on Amazon Hawk asked, "Why don't we just go to Hoot Judkins and get another bookshelf like that nice one we have upstairs?"

The reason we don't is that two-shelf bookshelf— which, BTW, is solid wood— cost $300... 10 years ago. The same item probably costs $500 today. These shelves are $50 apiece.

And these are on the pricier end for what they are. The vertical frames are metal, not particle board, and the shelf planks are real wood, also not particle board. If we'd wanted particle-board shelves we could've paid as little as $30 apiece.



Once we got the two shelves assembled on Sunday night and loaded up, moving most of the pantry contents off our dining room table, we decided we'd like a third shelf! Yes, these are really sturdy, and the fit and finish nice. Plus, they do fit neatly under the kitchen counter overhang (no accident; I measured) and the black-and-dark-wood colors match our dining table. We ordered a third shelf Sunday night, and it arrived less than 24 hours later, on Monday around dinnertime. We assembled it promptly, and— after posing it for the photo above— filled it up with pantry contents

It's a bit ironic that we left our pantry stacked up atop our dining table for 8 weeks before buying these shelves, and now after we've had them just a day or two the plumbers are here, working on the bathroom, today! It kinda seems like a waste of $150 for these shelves. But I knew the timing would be a risk when I bought them, which is why I carefully selected these shelves for their size, looks, and quality. Once we get the pantry back in order— which hopefully we can do in just a few days, now— we'll redeploy two of these shelves to hold some of the overflowing materials in Hawk's crafting space. The third shelf we'll probably keep here in the dining room, tucked under the kitchen bar, to hold overflow that would otherwise clutter the dining room.

After literal years of us leaving it unused I feel like there should be a powerful rock riff to herald the reopening of the shower in our main bathroom. Maybe something from Aerosmith?

🎵 I'm baaaack
I'm back in the shower again
I'm baaaack
I'm back in the shower again 🎵

So, what's the deal with the shower? Well, first here's a picture of what it looks like now, and then a (not-so) brief history of how we got to this point:

1. We renovated this shower and had the new tiles and handheld plumbing put in 15 years ago. The contractor didn't do a great job on the grout work, though. The grout chipped and cracked in a few places after several years. Also, mold developed until one of the lines of caulk.

2. We decided 6-7 years ago that we should stop using the shower until we could fix the grout and caulk. We considered hiring a pro again to fix it but also figured it was a DIY-able job if we did some research. Unfortunately...

3. We put off making time to do the research / do the work for several years. During this time we simply used the other shower in our house.

4. Hawk finally got sick of staring at it and followed up on watching some of the how-to videos I bookmarked last year. She bought the materials to patch the grout and redo the caulk. She did this late last month.

5. We started using the shower again. Hooray! But we quickly discovered a new problem. The shower head leaked a lot when we used it.

6. No problem fixing a leaky shower head. We just bought a new one! Well, I would have preferred to fix the old shower head by replacing a washer in it, a fix that would have cost pennies instead of $60, but that wasn't possible. The shower head was a sealed unit, preventing DIY repair. Ah, the disposable economy! We screwed on the new shower head and cord (seen in the photo above/right) and... discovered another problem.

7. The shower head leaked even when the water was turned off. I noticed this when I heard the drip... drip... drip... all night long. Alas the problem here was not the shower head but the valve in the plumbing. The valve mixer/cartridge pieces would need to be replaced.

8. I did first try disassembling, cleaning, and re-lubricating the parts in the valve, in case (like with the shower head) the problem was just a washer that had dried out too much during the years it was left unused. I cleaned it out as best I could, but the leak persisted. So we ordered replacement parts, about an $80 cost including tax, and waited several days for them to be shipped.

9. While we were waiting for the plumbing parts to arrive Hawk decided it was time to replace the mounting rod for the shower, too. That's the vertical bar and the swivel mount the hand-held piece slots in (in the photo above). Those pieces arrived. We removed the old rod, plugged two of the bolt holes in the tile (the new rod uses 2 mounting holes while the old one used 4), and mounted up the new rod.

10. Finally, last Thursday, we replaced the components inside the valve. Online videos helped enormously with this, giving us the confidence to DIY it without concern that we'd break something. We bolted it all back up, did a pressure test, adjusted the temperature limiter, et voila! We're baaaack in the shower again!

I noted ten days ago that the observed season of autumn had started. ...The observation being, "Hey, it's raining!" 🤣 Other observations I use to mark the start of fall and winter include "It's cool enough to turn the heat on in the house" and "It's cool enough that I prefer to wear trousers instead of shorts during the day." We're on the cusp of those markers now.

Yesterday evening I changed into pants to go out to dinner... not because I felt I needed to for fashion's sake but because I wanted to for comfort's sake in the cooling evening weather. Though as long as I was wearing pants for weather I classed it up to be fashionable by wearing a natty sport coat with an artfully folded pocket square.

Overnight it got cool enough outside that the temperature downstairs in our house was a brisk 66° (19° C) when I got up this morning. Up in the bedroom is was warmer, at about 68°. I hadn't actually felt cold overnight even though all I slept with was a light sheet and I'd left the bedroom balcony door open a few inches. Maybe chalk that up to reading articles recently that the ideal temperature for sleep is cooler than most people think. at 64-68°. (I'm glad my autonomous nervous system read those articles, too. 🤣)



As I got up and started puttering around the house with my normal breakfast routine it occurred to me that a soak in the hot tub would be a great way to shrug off the slight chill of the morning. I pulled on a light jacket for the walk out to the pool area. The jacket turned out not to be necessary as the air didn't feel that cold. Despite it being only about 62° the sun shine and lack of breeze made it feel warmer.

And once I got into the hot tub... well, all the thoughts of chilliness went away. Daaang, that water felt hot this morning! It was so hot it was bracing at first. Any weather is pool weather when the water's 103°!

It's been another taking-it-easy around home weekend here. That's much like last weekend. And much like last weekend, taking it easy around home was Plan B. Plan A this weekend had been to stay at a resort in Mammoth Lakes on the eastern Sierra but heavy smoke and a road closure due to wildfire led us cancel the trip Thursday. So, what did we do instead?

Saturday morning Hawk went to the monthly flea market at DeAnza College in Cupertino that she likes to visit. She trolled primarily for gems but also found some cookware and a boardgame worth buying. Meanwhile I stayed home and slept in.

Saturday afternoon we went out for lunch together then visited the Mountain View Art & Wine Festival. While it had some of the same vendors as the Los Altos Art & Wine Festival in July it had a fair number that were different. We enjoyed strolling around past all the booths. Ultimately we didn't buy anything.

One reason we didn't buy anything is that while wine is right in the event's name, and I really enjoy wine tasting, I just don't find what's on offer at these festivals that compelling. It's too expensive. Ditto for the beer they offer, too. And that beer is generally stuff I could find in any supermarket anyway. I look at the prices and selection and think to myself, "I'd be way happier drinking at home on my patio." So that's what I did!



I even tried a beer that's new to me. It's one I picked up during a shopping trip at the liquor store a few days ago. Mostly I was buying beers I already know and enjoy but I saw this one, a variety similar to one I've enjoyed before from the brand, and figured it'd be worth a try. It was more or less what I imagined it would be. And it was good.

Saturday evening we went out to Comedy Sportz in San Jose. Wow, it's been like 20 years since we last saw a Comedy Sportz show. (They're a small chain of community-level improv comedy theaters.) They have changed... pretty much not at all... in the past 20 years. That's both a good thing and a bad thing. And it reminded us that we need to get back into going out to live shows more often.

Saturday night we capped off our "date night" with a late dinner after staying for the encore performance at Comedy Sportz. There aren't a huge variety of restaurants open at 10:30pm on a Saturday evening anymore. Covid and its aftereffects have really slammed the restaurant industry. But the chain restaurant we stopped for dinks and appetizers at was doing brisk business at 10:30pm, so it's clear there's still some demand out there even if most businesses can't figure out how to serve it profitably.

Sunday morning we both puttered around until almost noon, then went out for what we call a "ritual" lunch. Our lunch ritual is to eat at a casual restaurant and linger over the food with our smartphones/tablets out. 15+ years ago we did it with the Sunday newspaper! It's fun to have these long term habits and update them with the times.

Sunday afternoon we treated ourselves to ice cream then came back home for an afternoon at the pool.



As is our usual for the pool, we spent some time doing walking laps in the water, then relaxed floating around, then took a soak in the hot tub (well, I did that solo while Hawk stayed in the main pool), then dried off on lounge chairs while reading from our smartphones/tablets again.

Now we're taking it easy indoors (walking laps in the pool takes a lot out of us!) until dinnertime. We're talking about grilling hot dogs for dinner. Exact plans are still up in the air.

Tomorrow will be back to work for me— including 3 or 4 days of travel. So on that basis I'm not totally pissed about giving up our Sierra trip this weekend. Call it only 50% pissed. 🤣 Relaxing at home this weekend has been a nice alternative.