Repair at the lowest price point
Today, I had a list of little jobs to accomplish. I took the route that made me feel as if I had done some things that were (more) important. Turned the banal into something better.
First up: repair the black water hose. There were a number of strategies open to me. I could spend the largest amount of money, order a complete new unit with all of the fixations prepared by professionals in the factory. Of course, I would have had to disassemble more of the infrastructure than I dared, so I set that possibility aside. Available to me if all else failed.
There was also the “cut and splice” repair model. I checked online inventories, decided what I might need and headed off to the hardware store. Even called upon someone who knew where things were in the shelves, to avoid spending the afternoon hunting/shopping. Came home with two connectors. The online description said I needed to repair a hose that was “one inch inside diameter”. It wasn’t, and the alternate connector would have got the job done, except… I had a Leatherman tool, and I removed the retaining clamp and then fitted my big lump (the outflow valve assembly) onto the original hose, with only a couple of Jubilee clips required. Makes for a better disassembly, the next time.
Store everything away, call the job completed and go eat some strawberries (not related, but there on the table).
In the afternoon, I got handed a big box of broken walkway lights. OK, maybe broken. Sixteen units, each with a solar panel and a NiCd cell. It’s getting dark out. Only two units are working, so now I have to decide if I want to purchase a baker’s dozen of cells, or go for broke and buy new ones (at a lower price) in the city. I suspect we’re going to have some junk to recycle.
I called the man with the night soil truck. He said he’d come by. He didn’t.
