Re: OT: Where? and What?

Bob Badour wrote:
> Just to give an update, the strange loud clunking noises were indeed the
> pipes in the laundry room bursting. It took until late that night for
> the house to heat up to the point where the pipes thawed, and as
> predicted, scads of fun were had by all.
>
> Luckily, two of the pipes feed a sink I never use and had shut-off
> valves downstairs. The third pipe that burst was the hot water feed to
> the washing machine, which had no shut-off valve. A friend came over
> last night who cut the pipe and capped it as a temporary fix so I can
> have hot water to the rest of the house until a plumber can fix it all
> up again.
>
> The severe weather is over so other than some water remaining in the
> basement, everything is turning out okay.

i guess it's okay for me to comment since you brought it up and besides, nobody else on c.d.t. has lately said much about c.d.t. i think plumbing is great therapy and anybody who can write a useable program can be good at it and enjoy it, if they aren't too scared to ignore the local regulations.

years ago, i had a very old house with a leaky bathtub and lots of lead drains and galvanized pipes. replaced the drain and leaks appeared elsewhere else. one thing led to another and on the advice of a neighbour, former master plumber turned auctioneer, i started replacing all the drains in the house, then all the water supply. some other neighbour noticed the old fixtures landing in the back yard and before i knew it, the city inspector was at the door threatening to cut off my water supply if i didn't get a permit. spent a week of evenings drawing the most beautiful 3-D diagram i was capable of. took it to City Hall and the clerk started laughing and called somebody else over. turned out he was the Chief Plumbing Inspector of Toronto. he said to me "you call this a plan?", motioned to a flunky for some scrap paper and in about twenty seconds, drew a few scraggly lines with scrawled "co" here and there. paid my money and got the permit.

well, after i was done, there wasn't a single leak. only problem was that there was only a trickle of water out of any of the taps in the house. told neighbour about this, he laughed and told me to go to the middle of each new copper pipe and heat it up good. this drew all my too-careful excess solder away from the joints and everything was fine.

came time to close the walls up but in spite of regular phone calls, the original inspector failed to show up for a couple of months. told my neighbour about this and he laughed, said he had known the inspector for years and he was just holding me up for a payoff. advised me to tell him that if he didn't show up the next day, i would close up the floors and walls anyway, which i did.

a few months later, both the neighbourhood inspector and the chief inspector were arrested for taking bribes from big property developers.   this is no tribute to Toronto the Good, as it remains just as relatively provincial as it was before 1960 when anybody who wasn't Orange could maybe get a job collecting garbage but forget the rest of city hall or the police.

i mention this both to encourage everybody here partly to encourage them to try the technicalities of plumbing but mostly to help them remember that the biggest problems of c.d.t. have to do with bureaucracy and monopoly, remembering this being the greatest talent of the c.d.t. triflers and those being the biggest problem of people who want to work in the field.

p Received on Mon Feb 19 2007 - 03:39:48 CET