Getting Down To Business

Winter will soon be setting in, and I needed to secure the opening to my crawl space, where the well and pump contrator replaced my pressure tank. For those of you hooked up to municipal water supplies, when you are on a well, you need a a pressure tank to keep your pump from running continuously. The tank holds twenty gallons of water, and has a rubber membrane inside, that expands as the tank is filled, and provides water pressure to faucets, toilets, shower heads, and washing machines. When the tank reaches maximum pressure, a pressure switch turns off the pump, and the tension on the rubber membrane provides water pressure to the various taps in the house. When the pressure declines to a fixed point, the pressure switch turns the pump back on, and the tank is recharged with well water, so you always have adequate water pressure. It all works quite well, as long as everything is in order.

With cold weather coming on, I needed to get the opening to my crawlspace covered, so that freezing cold air does not blow on the tank and associated pipes and valves. I measured the opening, and determined that a 26" x 30" piece of pressure treated plywood could be fastened over the opening with masonry screws, and thereby keep me from having to hire a a carpenter to reframe the opening, and construct a replacement cover, which had rotted away after 21 years. So I drove into Richmond yesterday, and went to Lowe's ( a big box hardware store ), and got them to cut cut me the appropriate size piece of pressure treated plywood, which by the way those mercenary SOB's charged me the price of a full sheet of plywood for, even though it was less than a quarter of a sheet! I also got some masonry screws, an appropriate size masonry drill bit, and a new broom, since my 18 year old straw broom has seen better days. I'm thinking of donating my old broom to a certain witch, who seems to delight in tormenting selected bloggers in our little trans blogger community. Maybe she can use it to fly somewhere far, far away! Of course she won't. She is far too pathologically obsessed, to refrain from stalking sites where she has clearly been told she is not welcome.

I didn't do much tonight. I just sat in front of the TV, and watched PBS. Globe Trekker came on first at 7:00 PM, and gave us a glimpse of Paris, especially it's history, including the revolution and the Bastille, and a bit of an insight into the last days of Marie Antoinette, before her beheading. Her story always reminds me of the hilarious cartoon that Gary Larson of the Far Side once drew. He was one of the best cartoonists ever, and he depicted a terrified Marie Antoinette being hauled up the steps to the Guillotine, screaming, "And ice cream! I said, let them eat cake, and ice cream!"

Next came a Masterpiece Theater Contemporary show on John Lennon. I'm sorry I watched it, because I love John Lennon, and it seemed to focus way too much on his acerbic side, making him seem like a heartless SOB. But how could anyone who wrote Imagine be anything but full of love?

After that came a documentary on how the Russian youth's love of the Beatles' banned music, undermined Soviet propaganda, and helped bring down the Soviet system! It seems that back in the 60's, Russian teens were just as crazy about the Beatles, as western kids were, but they weren't permitted to buy their music, so they tuned into Radio Luxembourg, and recorded it on tape. I remember Radio Luxembourg well, because I was living in Frankfurt/am Main in the mid 60's, and the British pirate radio station, Radio Luxembourg was Europe's American military dependent's only good source of rock'n'roll. We loved it, because they even played their commercials in Rock'n'Roll! Armed Forces Network only played easy listening music back then, and the German stations played all German music, so Radio Luxembourg was not only a godsend to Russian kids, but to us as well! Anyway, the tradition lives on, and many Beatles cover bands exist in Russia, and the younger generations seem to love them as much as their parents. I wonder if those four boys from Liverpool, ever had any idea of how much of an impact they would eventually have on the world?

America's Thanksgiving is coming up this Thursday, so my sister, myself, my niece, and her new rock' n' roll band boyfriend, will be gathering at my mother's condo in Richmond on Thursday, to partake in roast Turkey, and all the trimmings. It sure will be nice, if my mother can refrain from making negative remarks about his long hair. Hopefully that will be the case. Zoloft seems to have mellowed her temperament considerably from when I was a child.

Melissa XX