I had several chores planned for the day after yoga. Unfortunately, I could barely walk when class was over, my back again. Jen helped carry my yoga stuff out to the car and stood there talking to me, giving me advice, and doing some massage on me. Lucy passed us as we were standing there with me doubled over. She offered to stay with me if Jen wanted to leave. Have I told you how grateful I am for the yoga community? Once I got in the car, I felt somewhat better and made some of my planned stops.
At Ace Hardware, I returned the toilet seat I had bought. I decided to go for a new bisque colored toilet that would be a better match for my bathroom color scheme. I also looked for the system John Zimmerman recommended for securing the subflooring without lifting the carpet. Ace didn't carry it. Amazing. They have everything.
I decided to look at the PCV piping for my standing towel rack project. It cost me all of $8 for some joints and a ten-foot piece of ½ inch piping cut into eight pieces. I was initially planning to do a miniature model, but then thought, why not go with the full-sized—bad choice for several reasons.
The man who helped me was sweet. I can't say too much more for him. He had difficulty pronouncing his words clearly. Possibly English was not his first language, or he had a speech impediment. I suspected he was, Hawaiian and his dominant language was Hawaiian Pigeon (Hawaiian creole for you linguistics out there, comprised of English, Hawaiian, Portuguese, Cantonese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, and a touch of Spanish.) Hawaiian Pigeon was so dominant here at one point that a middle-aged friend of mine told me that that was the language his teachers used when he was in high school here.
I assumed he would know what he was doing. My experience with Ace employees has always been excellent. He told me to wait outside while he cut the 10' foot length into 8 pieces: two 3-foot pieces, two 1-foot pieces, and four 6 inch pieces. I should have known I would have problems when he demonstrated he didn't know how to use the measuring tape. When he measured 6 inches, he started to make a mark at the 6 cm. mark. He said he had trouble with his eyes. He was confusing 6 inches with 6 cm.; that's way beyond a vision problem. It took him forever to go into the workroom to make those few cuts. I stood there, leaning on a ledge, hearing Mike's voice in my head, saying, "Gentle."
The first time Mike went to the ICU, a nurse told him to stop thinking. Here he is lying flat on his back with tubes coming out all over the place, and she claimed she could tell he was someone who overthought. I told her it was cruel to say that to someone who had no training. She claimed that she could do it; she obviously thought there was something wrong with someone who couldn't. I told her I thought she was being sadistic.
When she left, Mike signaled he wanted the notebook so he could communicate with me. He wrote, "Gentle." So that's what I was hearing in my head now. The truth is if I had acted like a typical New Yorker, saying, "What the hell is the matter with you? I want to speak to your supervisor. You have no business working here," I would have been permanently banned from the store, and he would have kept his job. While these values can be somewhat frustrating, I vastly prefer dealing with the inconvenience rather than the east coast's verbal violence. It is not only this man who benefits from the aloha spirit; I do too.
When he finally brought the last 4 6-inch pieces out, two were cracked at the top, and one was much larger than the others. I asked him what we were going to do. I didn't think it was my responsibility if he had screwed up. I figured he tried to shift the pipe while being sawed when he realized he had mismeasured. He went to look for his supervisor. When he came back, he said he couldn't find anyone. "Gentle!"
I suggested we cut all the pieces down to 5 ½ inches. This time, I did the measuring and marking of the tube. It again took the employee forever to make those four cuts, but they were even when he came out. I collected the cut pieces and went out to my car.
I would stop at Memory Lane to drop off donations and then to Home Depot to look for that Everbilt repair kit for screwing down subflooring through carpeting for all of $23, but I decided to go home in case my back didn't hold up.
When I got out of the car, I was in bad, bad shape. I hobbled into the house, got out of my wet clothing, and headed for the sofa/loveseat and my heating pad. I spent most of the day there, sleeping and reading occasionally. Before I did, I contacted the teachers at school to tell them that I wouldn't be coming in for the day.
When my back was somewhat better, I got up and researched toilets for the elderly. I certainly need a tall toilet. Sitting on a low one is out for me already. The other question I had was about the seat shape. The site I checked recommended the elongated seat. That makes sense. When I sit down, I reach for the seat to help me lower myself. Then I went to the Home Depot site.
I had checked the toilets in the store the other day—the price varied by over one hundred dollars. When I asked the store employee, he said the only difference was the brand name. I wanted the one for $135; it looked suitable, but I wanted it in beige. The employee told me I had to order it online. The price for the exact same toilet in beige is $279. Are you for real? I may as well buy one of the more expensive ones in the store. That one would still be cheaper than this online job.
John Zimmerman called to check how I was doing since my bout with vertigo. I was pleased to tell him I was in A1 condition and update him on the news with the carpet. Later on in the day, Yvette sent Scott up with a fresh loaf of bread. While Scott was here, I spoke construction with him. I told him what the carpet installer had said about the subflooring. Scott said he wouldn't know because he hadn't heard it from below. How can someone who has been installing carpets for years really not be aware when the subflooring is moving? Could it be that he had never heard it from below and doesn't know that that muted creaking he heard when he stepped makes a considerable noise below as it resonates through the flooring and into the room? I don't get it, but I suppose it's possible. I talked to Scott about finding the noisy spots and the joists using the Everbilt repair kit. Scott spoke about problems with making an accurate detection. He said the noise could come from a place between two joists. I figure if we secure the flooring in one spot and the same sound winds up in another spot, that confirms the noise has something to do with the subflooring. If not, it doesn't. It is one way to test the hypothesis.
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