Thursday Stuff, Leaks and Clutter Among Other Things

The leak story actually started yesterday, last night I think.  I noticed an odd smell in the garage, but there are all sorts of things (Bill's junk) as well as the deep freeze, tools, my work bench, (more of Bill's junk), lots of dust and (lots more of Bill's junk).  So, I wasn't too worried.  Until this morning, when it smelled more like a chemical and it was strong.  Bill couldn't find anything, but we did open the garage door and air it out for a while before he went to work.  When we got home, it was strong again so we knew it was something we had to find.  Otter and I took all the recycling stuff and loaded it in the car, and Bill started Searching.  (Searching with a capital S for a reason:  Bill!).  He finally found it.

We moved into this house just over 6 years ago.  A few years before that, probably around 3 to 5 years, we had to replace the sewer line at the old house.  (Lot of work, and one of the many MANY times I wished that Bill weren't an engineer so we could actually get someone else to do the work!).  We used PVC pipe to replace the old, cracked sewer lines.  When you use PVC pipe, it's necessary to use a special glue or sealant between the pipe pieces to seal them correctly so that they don't leak or allow tree roots acess.  Bill still had some left, it's just been sitting on (the very top) shelf in the garage, for all these years.  Guess what developed a leak?

The fumes can be explosive, so it wasn't something that could wait.  After my chauffer (Otter) and I got back from the library, we had dinner (spaghetti!) and then got busy cleaning out the middle shelf unit of the garage.  All that, just to get to one small can that leaked!  It wasn't a big leak, and probably not enough to have even been dangerous.  But it did have a very strong odor.  Problem's solved now.

But it gave me an excuse to start back on getting Billyboy motivated to clean/de-clutter the garage.  And, believe me, I'm going to use it!

It's been a crazy week at work.  My wonderful boss, E.L., turned 95 on Monday.  He's been celebrating all week, and he's certainly entitled to.  Among other things, he had multiple pieces of chocolate birthday cake Monday and was like a sugared up toddler all afternoon!  He also thinks that Monday's holiday (not one we observe, given the Cherokee heritage) should be renamed to EL day.  I agreed with him, by the way.

I mentioned the library earlier.  Otter and I made our weekly trip today, we only had a few things that hadn't been turned in but we were desperately in need of more things to read.  We're stocked up now, although we both read fast so the books might not last quite as long as it looks like if you were to look at our bookshelf.

I've been reading some stuff about color blindness.  Dad had it, although he could see really bright colors like red.  Which is unusual, men usually have problems seeing red or green.  One of the rather interesting things I found was that the color problems I have, as do Froggy and Toadly, is very common with children of fathers who are colorblilnd.  I always thought that there was a connection, and it turns out that I was right.  It's usually passed from father to daughter, but not always.  Otter will have to watch for it when she has children, and so will Froggy's kids.  I'm not sure if JediMom or her kiddos have any issues with it.

I'm also wondering if the distance/depth perception problem I have might be related?  It's not an extremely bad depth perception problem, but there are times when it bothers me more than others.  When I'm driving, I tend to wait way longer than I have to when turning left - there is a distance where oncoming cars look like they are right in front of me but then they get to where they really are right in front of me, then I realize that they were pretty far away to start with.  I've suspected that Otter might have inherited it, and she thinks she has as well.  She notices it when driving, the same way I do but hers might not be as "bad" as mine is.  Froggy?  What about you?  I don't think Toadles has it.

Doggies go to the v.e.t. next week.  It's time for most shots.  And Maggie is in for a butt squishing!  (Don't tell her).