Saturday, March 31, 2012

A good nights sleep

It's tough being a parent some times. Even tougher when the kids are living away from home. When I lay down for bed at night, my last thought before I fall asleep is about my Daughters. I wish them well, and sometimes I've fallen asleep with my fingers crossed. They are not out there doing stupid things anymore, as their college days are behind them, thankfully. Well, there is grad school, but I'm assuming that will be more subdued than the previous 4 yrs. You still worry about them, and you pray that the midnight phone call never comes through. We're not so lucky.

Nicole, who lives in GA, called to say she was in an ER with extreme pain in the stomach area. Turns out it was kidney stones, and we all know how painful that can be. Hearing your daughter in that much pain is gut wrenching, even though you know it's not something life threatening. She was on pain meds, and not speaking very well, which added to the worry. Thankfully Jonathan was with her, and she got home safe, but still in extreme pain. The stone caused some inflammation, and the med's plugged her up, and she came down with an infection, so she was one miserable little daughter. The impulse to drive the 16 hrs south was upon us, but we hesitated, hoping she would follow our advice of reduced pain medication, and a glass of water every hour, plus antibiotics. She failed to make water a priority, and ended up back in the ER, severely dehydrated, and this was after another one of those nightly calls. We've had some of these calls over the many years, the worst being from a hospital saying your child is being medevac'd in from a car accident. Not even going to replay that event. That was the oldest, and she was fine, but my hair never recovered.

Lesson learned, Nicole is now fully hydrated, off the painkillers, and on Flowmax. Now she spends her time in the bathroom, where hopefully that jagged edged little four millimeter torture device will exit.

We've been blessed with two wonderful daughters, but there have been times....

Ahh, the good old days.

Fingers crossed.

Monday, March 26, 2012

Remains

Crosby left some remains, and I spent a day removing the plumbing and cleaning up the fridge and freezer compartments. In the fridge there was this empty barbed fitting at the top of the compartment, and I had no idea what it was for. I did not have the boats drawings handy, so I tried to trace the hose attached to it. The fitting was attached to a pipe that ran through the fridge wall, to another barbed fitting on the other side. This side had a hose that ran down into the bilge. I traced it out, and it looked like it was an open hose to the bilge. What the heck? Well, I needed a hole for the seafrost tubing, so I decided to take it off. Ha, no way that was coming off easy. The damn thing was plastered with 5200, all the way through the wall. You ever look at something, and decide it wouldn't be worth messing with, but you mess with it anyway?



Took me three hours to get that stupid piece of pipe out of there. Whoever did the job used so much 5200 that they plugged up most of the pipe. After I got the hose free, I pushed and pulled some, and found it to be attached to a hand pump under the galley sink. So, it looks like it was a pump for spilled beer and stuff at the bottom of the fridge. Not sure I need a pump for the fridge. I'll leave it connected, and coiled under the sink. Might make a good emergency bilge pump some day.

While in the engine room, I tried to clean up some of the belt dust that got everywhere when we burned up some belts a few years ago. I have been slacking a bit in cleaning this mess up, but now that Crosby is gone there is more room in there. So I gave it a once over. That dust is difficult to remove. Might have to use water, then suck it out of the bilge. Hey, I'll use the new found hand pump for that!



Someone got carried away with the silver engine paint, and got some in my hair :)

Cheers!