Friday, May 28, 2010

And now for something completely different ...

I can't believe I haven't posted anything since ... um ... March!! Mea maxima culpea!

It has been a bit crazy at hospice. We have four teams that consist of registered nurses, certified nursing assistants (who are worth their weight in gold!), social workers and chaplain(s). The (s) is because not every team has multiple chaplains and that would include my team. I'm the "lone chaplain" in our group and this can make things rather crazy. My patient load went from 32 to 23 in one month ... and that doesn't count the ones who "passed through" rather quickly. I had 11 deaths in the past month and multiple funerals at which I presided ... in addition to all the regular patient visits. So the blog went ... well ... AWOL!

I took a "comp day" off today since so many of my funerals were on Saturdays (last week was a graveside where I spent 20 minutes at the grave and 3+ hours in my car!). So I "did lunch" with my good friend Katrina Marie and then went to buy a toilet. Yeah, I know ... you are SO thinking "Wow! A toilet!!" What can I say - it's life in the fast lane.

I found a super low flow toilet on sale (bonus) at Lowes. Forget the extra $100 just to get it in bisque ... gimme the PWT (Plain White Toilet). Well ... after pullling the old one off I found some water damage to the wood floor underneath. (N.B. Yes, Virginia, you do need to raise the toilet flange with a spacer if you put in 3/4" wood flooring! Let's hear it for the original contractors who shortcut this one!). One more trip to Lowes to get a spacer kit and another wax ring and it all came together pretty well.

I am astounded at how a simple toilet swap caused all my tools (hand and power) to migrate into my house! I'm thinking it would take a crescent wrench (doesn't everything job require these?), a couple of screwdrivers, and a paint scraper (to get that nasty wax off). Eventually the Dremel made the migration (to cut off the extra long toilet T-bolts), the cordless drill ... until the battery went dead ... which cause the electric corded drill to visit along with the extension cord, then the hacksaw, then a few more screwdrivers, and the really BIG channel locks.

But ... it's a really cool toilet! High geek factor! Low water usage! I can just hear my water bill taking a nosedive. Life is good.