Domicile Colonoscopy.

My house had a colonoscopy tonight.

Well, what else would you call it when some professional runs a camera down the poop chute looking for unwanted growths.  So what if it’s the sewer line and the growths are tree roots?

The good news is that my pipes look pretty good.  Almost all the roots were hair sized and just growing through the joints.  No damage.  So, it looks like I’m not going to have to do the $9,000 replacement, he just got out his other machine and cut out most of the roots.  He’ll be coming back later in the week to treat the lines with root killer, and he says that if I kill the roots every 2 years or so I should be fine for years to come.

The only thing I find weird is that the camera has a microphone.  I mean, what would you have to listen to down a sewer line?

Oy Vey!

For the last 2 days I’ve been without a bathroom.  Thursday morning I flushed the toilet and it backed up into the tub.

Friday I went through a ton of Liquid Plumber and then bought a drain snake and tried to snake out the drain.  To no avail.

Today the plumber came and cleared it out.  For a while at least, because I have roots growing into the sewer line that goes right under the house.

Monday or Tuesday he’s coming back with his drain camera to see how bad the damage is.

Best case scenario, which he says has a 75% chance, is that they can salvage the pipes and just power flush and root kill the drains.  Cost: $1,500.

Worst case scenario is the pipes are not salvageable and they’ll have to break up the concrete in the basement and replace the pipes.  Estimated cost: $9,000.  Right now, I wish I was a renter.

If I ever needed to inherit some money from a long-lost relative, this is the time.

In a week.

Well, it’s been over a week since I picked up the Jeep and I’ve been loving it.

The T-top roof is great, especially in this sunny and warm one day, cold and rainy the next weather.  It’s got as much power as the old one, cruises a lot smoother on the freeway and (so far) averages 22% better gas mileage.

I have to say, though, that the definition of “stripped model” has change considerably over the last 35 years.

In 1979 I bought a brand new Mazda GLC (grandpappy to the Mazda 3).  At the time I was amazed that the rear window defrogger was standard, and I did pay extra for the roof rack.  Other than that it was basic.  Steering wheel, 4-speed transmission, 4 doors and an engine.

My Jeep is the basic model.  The only options I have on it are the hard-top and air conditioning.  I was amazed because they are hard to find, but it came with manual windows and manual door locks (same as the Mazda).

But this stripped model includes cruise control, ABS, intermittent wipers, locking glove box and center console, rear wiper, vanity mirrors on both visors, control center (avg MPG, outside temp, direction {N,S,E,W}, miles to empty, change oil warning), 6 speaker stereo with controls on the steering wheel, 6 speed manual transmission, and a full sized spare tire.  That last one was standard in 1979, but rarely seen these days.

Then again, the Mazda cost me $4,500 – the Jeep cost 5 times as much.

So on Sunday my brothers and I went out to Stansbury Island for some 4-wheeling.  I got the Jeep a little muddy and went up the side of the hill.

Today I took the top off.  Spring break and today and tomorrow are the only 2 days in a row that it isn’t going to rain, so I just had to.

I went out to the Great Salt Lake to get these pictures.  It was a little chilly with the top off, but it still was great.

Oh, and here’s a cow that found our hike on Stansbury Island quite fascinating.

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It’s here!

I picked up the new Jeep Wednesday, right after school.  51 days after I ordered it, a long 51 days even though it was within their 6 weeks to 2 months window.

I picked it up with 1 mile on the odometer, and the dealer pointed out what was printed at the top of the window sticker:

Yup, built just for me.   And although I don’t generally liken to “signs”, I couldn’t help but feel like I got the right vehicle when “Life is a Highway” was the song on the radio as I drove out of the dealer lot.

Anyway, I’m headed up to Logan for a math workshop this weekend, but wanted to leave a few pictures I took yesterday when I went up Lambs Canyon.

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It's a beautiful sight.

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Happy Birthday Jeff

Carmen Sandiego.

Waldo and Carmen could be anywhere in the world for all I care, but I did just come back from the dealer and found out where my Jeep is.  (It’s been 5 days since I last checked, that means officially I’m not obsessed, right?)

It’s on the rail car in Green River, Wyoming.  The original delivery date was the 24th, but now they have it in my hands on the 20th of this month.  Wheeeee!

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Goodbye #58

Sold the Jeep today.  I loved that Jeep, but it’s quite a weight off my shoulders.  Now I can just look forward to getting the new one without the worry about having two car payments.

Ok Jeep, bring it on…

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Happy Birthday Josh

It’s on it’s way!

The new Jeep is completed, inspected and on the train for delivery.  Yea!

I went to my insurance agent today to see how high my rates are going to skyrocket with the new Jeep.  A whopping $100.  Every 6 months that is.  That works out to less than $17 a month extra.  Score!

Then I went down to the dealership to see if they had an estimated date of arrival.  They looked it up and printed out this status.

2 weeks.  I still have to wait 2 weeks.

Oy, it’s gonna be a long 2 weeks…

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Happy Birthday Scott

Finally, some progression.

On Thursday, February 13th I got the notification that my new Jeep was scheduled for production.

Yesterday (Mar 6) finally showed me some progression.  In one day the car went from “scheduled” to having the frame done,

and the painting started.

From what I’ve heard, this is the short end of the process.  the vehicle takes just a couple days to finish, and then they just have to get it here.  That could take a week or two still, but that still will be a lot less than just getting it started.

View progression HERE.

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I’ll be fine with 4 hours of sleep.

Got a call from my principal around 10:15 tonight.

There was a fire in the auditorium and the Fire Marshall needed some information about the stage lights and how the light board worked.

He tried to get the information from me over the phone, but in the end I ended up having to head down to the school to turn things on so I could answer his questions.  I ended up being there for a while, I didn’t get home until a little after midnight.

We figured out that is probably wasn’t a short in the system, and that none of the lights were left on.  What we think happened is that a couple of the spot lights that are on light trees on the stage were a little too close to the curtains, and somebody probably accidentally pushed the curtain right onto one of the lights on their way out of the stage.  Even though there were off, they had been on and if you’ve ever worked with them you know that they get incredibly hot, and can stay that way for a while.

Fortunately, thanks to the fire-sprinkler system, the damage (to the building) was minimal and we’ll still be having school tomorrow.

The main curtain was ruined, as was one of the black side curtains.  The nice hardwood on the wall by the curtain was burned and had to be removed, and a little of the hardwood floor was singed a bit too.  The stage and auditorium floor were drenched, according the the Fire Marshall there was 3 feet of water in the orchestra pit area.

The big damage was water damage to the sets.  The school production of “The Wizard of Oz” was scheduled to start next week, but since the witches castle and the front doors to the emerald city were destroyed, we’re not sure it’s going to happen.

Anyway, at least the building didn’t burn to the ground and I’m getting real tired so it’s off to bed.  Hopefully they’ll have the smoke smell cleared out of the building by morning so I won’t have to deal with that. 

G’nite.

Happy Birthday Jenn

Big mistake.

Yeah, you park in the back of the building where no kid goes during the school day, and few otherwise.

So you park up against the building and between two large vehicles.

I know they’re a pain to take off and to put back on.

But still, I would never leave the “For Sale” signs (with your phone number) on the car you drive to the Junior High you teach at.

Never again, that is.

The sad thing is I actually did think about it, but for some reason believed my phone number was safe back there.  In my defense, it did take them almost 2 weeks before the first kid noticed.

Now I just have to sell the Jeep and wait until the novelty of having your teacher ignore your phone calls wears off.

And never again bring a car to school that had my phone number on it.

Happy Birthday Lynda