There are no pics this week.

We had the usual array of neighborhood parties and activities. And we did some unusual stuff.

Danita and I got so good at going to DC to get a Russian Visa, we decided to use our new-found skills to visit an exhibition at the National Geographic Museum. This museum is one metro stop before the one we used to get to the Russian Visa place. The exhibit is called “The Greeks”. It covered Greece from pre-history to Alexander the Great. They had an entire floor filled with artifacts, plus story-telling sign boards and videos. It was quite interesting. We had to buy timed admission tickets. We decided to get breakfast in DC and be at the museum at 10. We allowed for the slowest trip we had into DC, plus a little extra because we would be driving in the morning DC rush. We ended up with a little less traffic than we anticipated, plus the fastest trip into DC, so we had plenty of time for breakfast.We spent over 2 hours in the exhibit. When we got out, I was hungry so we also had lunch in DC. Adding up the costs of the trip — parking, Metro fare, breakfast, lunch, and tickets — the cost of the tickets was a minor part of the cost of the trip. I remembered my camera, but they didn’t allow any photography, so there’s no pics of what we saw.

My other big adventure this week was our walk-in shower. It turns out that when a walk-in showers start dripping, it makes a lot of noise. In addition, this drip was quickly getting worse. In the old days, one would turn the water off, replace a rubber washer, and that was it. Total cost: less than a buck. Now days we have fancy plumbing. Instead of a rubber washer, one installs a new cartridge, which costs about $85. I found a half-price cartridge at Lowe’s, but in place of “Delta”, there was a curiously Chinese-sounding name. I decided to spend the extra in the hopes this would be a life-time repair. The next step is to figure out which cartridge I needed. That turned out to be impossible without taking the faucet apart. Taking the faucet apart requires shutting the water off for the house. We’ve become accustomed to having running water. So I would have to turn the water off, disassemble the faucet and extract the cartridge, procure a new cartridge, and reassemble everything — hopefully all in one morning. I was becoming very interested in understanding exactly what I would have to do.

I found that Delta had posted a You-Tube video. The guy spent a lot of time talking about “before 1993” and “F-Series” and “T-Series” and offered a bewildering list of Delta part numbers. After I recovered from that shock, I watched a few more times. The disassembly and reassembly looked very easy. I watched a few more times. That “plumber” is wearing brand new boots. I never saw a real plumber wearing brand new boots before.

Monday I screwed up my courage. Disassembly had only a few surprises. Then it was off to the plumbing supply store. This was my second trip to the plumbing supply store. I like these guys a lot. They have everything a plumbing supply store should have. A cool name (Schumacher & Seiler). A counter with stools. Plumbers talking with employees. A big room filled with more plumbing stuff than I ever knew existed. A back room where employees go to find what you’re looking for. And a very friendly attitude towards homeowners that have no idea what they’re doing. Sure enough, they had exactly what I wanted. And sure enough, when I got home, it all fit in the hole. I put it together, turned the water on, and twisted the knob. There was no water in the shower. Everything else worked, but not a drop came out of the shower head.

That certainly fixed the shower drip. but I figured Danita wouldn’t be happy with this solution. Fortunately, on my second attempt, I figured out what I had done wrong. And it turns out I didn’t break anything and didn’t need to call a plumber. I didn’t even have to buy a second $85 cartridge.

So it’s all good news for this week. I hope this finds everybody doing well.