I Will Not Complain About Fixing My Toilet
I finally got everything fixed a weekend or two ago. I decided to go ahead and use the part that was theoretically too short. It works just fine now with no leaks, no running on and no other troubles. I ended up fixing it the night I got back from my trip North. You see, the water shut-off valve doesn't completely shut the water off. Water continued to ooze from the top of the water supply line while I was away and the toilet was disassembled. When I returned, there was a sizeable puddle in the bathroom, which caused some moments of panic since the water was pooling up against the baseboards and wall. (There appears to be no water damage.)
The whole reassembly process took about 10 minutes from start to finish, including cleaning up the flood. The quest for the right part took about 4 days and cost me about $10 total.
So, where does the "no complaining" come in? When I needed to get parts, I just had to drive seven miles to town to get them. If things went badly, a plumber was just a phone call away. I also have two bathrooms.
These guys?
Their one and only broken toilet required parts to be shipped 217 vertical miles via space shuttle ($450 million per launch). Fortunately the shuttle was already scheduled to launch last week and there was room to put said toilet parts on board. The shuttle program even loaded up extra "consumables" so that the ISS crew could use the shuttle toilet until the ISS toilet could be fixed.
Wouldn't it have been awful if the toilet broke *after* the shuttle launched? Obviously, the parts would have been sent up via rocket, but that still takes time to plan, assemble and launch. I'm glad the timing worked out as well as it did. I'm also amused that this incident has caused adults and children alike to consider the potential difficulties of using a toilet in a micro-gravity environment.
On a Related Note:
You can find out when various spacecraft will be flying over your location at the Real-Time Data website. I'll be waving at the conjoined ISS-Shuttle tomorrow night. In July, I'll be at the Kennedy Space Center and am looking forward to having lunch with an astronaut. Now, if only I could get some Lucky Rocketship Underpants, all would be good.
The whole reassembly process took about 10 minutes from start to finish, including cleaning up the flood. The quest for the right part took about 4 days and cost me about $10 total.
So, where does the "no complaining" come in? When I needed to get parts, I just had to drive seven miles to town to get them. If things went badly, a plumber was just a phone call away. I also have two bathrooms.
These guys?
Their one and only broken toilet required parts to be shipped 217 vertical miles via space shuttle ($450 million per launch). Fortunately the shuttle was already scheduled to launch last week and there was room to put said toilet parts on board. The shuttle program even loaded up extra "consumables" so that the ISS crew could use the shuttle toilet until the ISS toilet could be fixed.Wouldn't it have been awful if the toilet broke *after* the shuttle launched? Obviously, the parts would have been sent up via rocket, but that still takes time to plan, assemble and launch. I'm glad the timing worked out as well as it did. I'm also amused that this incident has caused adults and children alike to consider the potential difficulties of using a toilet in a micro-gravity environment.
On a Related Note:
You can find out when various spacecraft will be flying over your location at the Real-Time Data website. I'll be waving at the conjoined ISS-Shuttle tomorrow night. In July, I'll be at the Kennedy Space Center and am looking forward to having lunch with an astronaut. Now, if only I could get some Lucky Rocketship Underpants, all would be good.
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