Yesterday, we attended a lure coursing event in support of TAGS. Trudy could not control her excitement and waiting in line was not something she wanted to do. Finally, she had her turn and gave the best run of the day. Many folks there suggested we start competing, but I am not sure that is for us.

Tuesday afternoon when I got home, I had the notice from the city on my door. I quickly called a local highly recommended plumber and he thought he would be unable to get to it until Thursday. Without water, things sure are difficult. A quick search revealed another plumber and they came out right away. They could not complete any work that evening but said to repair tomorrow would likely be in the $750 range. Yikes! I told them I would think about it over night. We bought a meter key Tuesday night and were able to turn the water on so we could shower in the morning and then turned it off.

Wednesday morning I decided to get another opinion from the first plumber I called. He had some down time and came over to check it out. After digging up a section in back of the meter, the problem was located. We have copper from the meter to the house, but the installer used a PVC T adapter to feed the sprinkler system. When the ground shifts it puts pressure on the fitting. The plumber had to leave to get parts and attend a couple other scheduled jobs. Returning in the afternoon, they soldered a new copper piece that should have a much longer useful life than that PVC piece. His labor was a set cost + parts and came out nearly a third of what the other company quoted. I now know why they are in such high demand locally and will use them going forward if I have any issues.

You never know how you’ll miss water until you have none.

The part came in today and I spent a good 45 minutes putting it in. Still no brake lights! Then I ran to autozone and got new bulbs and a few low amp fuses. Replaced the fuses in the cabin and the lamps. Still no brake lights. I spent some more time on the googles and somewhere there was a mention of an under hood fuse. I thought I had checked all of the brake related ones a few days ago. After pulling the cover off the under hood fuse box I located the 25A fuse for VEH STOP. This was blown! Swapped one from the sun-roof and now have brake lights!

I’ll pick up another fuse for the sun-roof but likely won’t need it now that it is cooling off. I’m relieved because Lindsay has to go to a greyhound meet and greet for TAGS tomorrow and I don’t want her getting run into because of no brake lights.

I’m not upset about putting the new switch, bulb and fuses in as they’re bound to go out some time. The Tahoe is almost to 90,000 miles.

Several days ago, I cut the stalks near the ground. Last evening and part of this morning, I pulled it down. It was fairly easy and the parts that didn’t immediately come down were reached by my extension ladder. There’s quite a mess on the ground and phase two will be cleaning that up.

I removed the cover to see that only two wires in the cable bundle connected to the unit. I cut back the chewed wire, cut some of the sheath off and stripped the two wires I needed to reconnect. Assured I wouldn’t electrocute myself, I twisted the two wires to the leads, capped them and put the cover back on. Presto! Our A/C was back! Fortunately, it has been fairly cool in Texas but this week we are expecting to get back in the 90′s.

If only the rodent would have chewed the high voltage line!

Mark Lennihan, AP

These blue lights shone during the evening hours this year for the anniversary of September 11. It was a very surreal experience to see them. In the image above, the hotel I stay at when traveling is directly to the right of the lights. This was taken from the memorial looking towards my hotel. On occasion, I will get a room with a view of the memorial.

AFP PHOTO/Stan HONDASTAN HONDA/AFP/GettyImages

More pictures are here: http://www.timesunion.com/news/slideshow/Tribute-in-Light-48856.php