A Time For Celebration

I’m back in Nashville tonight and feeling pretty worn out.  We got an early start this morning.  I couldn’t believe it when my mom, who is generally a late sleeper, rolled out of bed this morning at 5:30 Eastern time.  Even I wasn’t ready to get up.  Once up, though, we got moving and were heading west by 7:30.

With the early start, we had some outstanding fall color displays with the early morning sun just in the right spot at the right time.  It’s amazing how much the leaves have change just since Monday.  Not only did we see spectacular fall color we also saw snow on the high peaks in the Smokies near the TN/NC border.

Tennessee Welcome Center on I-40 at North Carolina border.

My day consisted of riding in the car which, at best, isn’t very exciting.  Gene, on the other hand, had a day worth celebrating so I’m going to let him tell his story for today’s blog.  Sorry I don’t have pictures.

It is time to celebrate. I try to celebrate when something in the RV is still working. This is hard to do. I do not naturally wake in the morning and celebrate the refrigerator still running. Last night I turned on the furnace for the first time since July or early August. It worked. Now that I can notice and celebrate.

But I did have to face the fact that the toilet bowl was just not able to "hold its water".  So I got out a tooth brush (an old, retired one) and scrubbed the rubber gasket.  I spent a fair amount of face time with my toilet today. I'd scrub and leave water. Set the timer for 5 minutes and return to discover the leak was not fixed. This went on longer than I wished. My patience, while remarkable, was not being rewarded.

Down the street is my RV dealer. I stopped in and asked if I could use CLR or LImeaway without ruining the gasket. They didn't know; they always just replace the gasket. We had problems with calcium build up last month in our faucet aerators. I could see white flakes on the gasket that were not brushing off. So I thought of Limeaway.

I went to Kroger grocery and read the label. CLR had diluting instructions for toilets, but they were thinking stained porcelain. Keep it off granite and marble. Okay, none in my RV. Keep it off paint and wall paper.  And skin and eyes.

What the hell.

I chose CLR because it could be diluted and wasn't in a spray bottle. After more face time with my toilet I could tell the white specks were fewer but were not all gone. What I needed as an implement.  A tool is designed for a purpose. An implement might just work in this case even if designed  for something else. I asked my Worthy Assistant (Judi) to deliver to me a wooden match. Reversing its orientation, I had available a not sharp, small implement to apply friction to the recalcitrant calcium.

Eureka.

Being a retired accountant I have not had a lifetime of experiencing physical success in mechanical things. My physical successes were involved with hiking which was demanding, but not work. Work is useful and leads to accomplishment. In savoring this success, accomplishment, and useful work experience, I wanted to share it with you.

Gene

Thanks for tagging along.