7 October 2010:
Teaching Eco-Investigations at TRAC is very rewarding (so far). Wednesday
we saw a deer on the trail and in the pond. It was a really a cool experience
for the kids. I’ve got to work on timing things better. I cannot seem to leave enough time in the Wet Lab for them to do a thorough survey of the samples.
I have one more week of severance, which means I get a
check this week and a partial check on the 21st, then, I’m on my own.
I talked to the RTN Benefits office today to be sure I
understood how the transition from severance health insurance to retiree health insurance would occur. It seems that the premiums will be taken out of the pension check, so that’s one less thing to worry
about.
Last Friday, the DirecTV receiver melted. I think it’s been going bad for some time, but it broke completely on Friday. Called DTV and they sent a replacement receiver which arrived yesterday.
I’m still trying to get the remotes programmed and remember what I had on the recording queue.
Saturday the Leak Frog in the water heater closet went
off. The leak hadn’t gotten to the carpet yet, so I shut off the water
into the heater, put a drain hose on the tap, and opened the taps to let the water drain out of the heater. That stopped the leak, but didn’t really drain the tank. The
plumber said he could replace the water heater, move it to the closet next to the back door (so if it leaks, it runs out under
the north wall and onto the driveway instead of through the carpeted den) for $1,250.00.
We gulped and said, “OK; go ahead.” Then he said that the
only problem was that he couldn’t get the water heater until Monday. Sunday
and Monday I dealt with cold showers (you’d be surprised how fast you can shower when the water’s 50°) and Mel., smarter than I, showered at TRAC. Monday we rushed home from Eco-Investigations to be here by 2:00 when the plumber promised to be here. About 4:30 we called the plumber to find out why he hadn’t shown up yet. He said he couldn’t get the parts and would come Tuesday morning. “You’re saying I’ve got another day of cold showers?” I asked. “How about if I give you $75 off for the inconvenience?” he countered. I agreed, and when he showed up on Tuesday, he looked at the closet and at the water heater again. He said he didn’t have the parts or tools to move the vent pipe from one end
of the den to the other and he didn’t consider fixing the hole in the roof that would be left behind, and … So
I told him to forget the closet move and just fix the water heater. He completed
the job and still gave me the $75 inconvenience discount, so it ended up costing me “only” $825. This on top of property taxes, Turtle Reef assessment, Mel.’s car needing new brakes (we dropped
it off at Wilson this morning and still haven’t heard from Barry what the damage will be) and who knows what else, it’ll
be a challenging way to start living on the pension without severance.
