There’s something to be said for ruminating over this kind of thing. It let me figure out that if there was dripping water when either hot or cold faucet was open the most likely culprit was the old faucets. Sunday afternoon found us in Lowe’s deciding on faucets. One might think this would a straight forward pull the old, put in the new and all is good to go. Enter Murphy.

Guess I shoulda known. Removing the old faucets went well until time to unscrew those big plastic holding nuts. Does stuff you work on sometimes talk to you? After an hour or so trying to loosen those big nuts the sink finally said “hey you, Mr. obviously not a rocket scientist, your option is to pull me out and bust these plastic nuts off so get with the program”. No problem. Well maybe small problem because the sink was held with the normal hold down things (whatever they are called) and caulked from the under side with tenacious white stuff that’s really hard to cut through. A cartoon bubble of the crazy Irishman aka Murphy sipping (more likely guzzling) Irish Whiskey and roaring with laughter floated overhead. What ever I did to deserve him is a mystery.

Oh, did I mention if there had been plastic plumbing in the Roman Empire the supply lines from shutoff valves to faucet inlets could have come from that era? Aside from mangled tubing ends (looked as though the tubing ends were gnawed rather than cut) the plastic fittings ceased to be industry acceptable long before this mobile home was manufactured. Suffice it to say my discomfort level with outdated fittings and mangled tubing was huge. But it’s fixed, no leaks, no drips, no errors and nice new faucets. Only three runs for parts and information but it’s a done deal. Now all that remains is to return extra parts.

Talk about an eye opener, spend Sunday and most of Monday with no running water to the kitchen. Hearing the dishwasher run Tuesday evening – priceless. There’s a sense of accomplishment with any project.

Anyone want to hear about my aches and pains from down, standing back up, back down (about 47, 392 times), lying under the sink with cabinet ledge digging at my back and because it’s not daily routine the belief enough ibuprofen doesn’t exist? Yep, that’s what I thought! Oh the burdens of being a DIYer!

Wrong reasons? Yep, I’m less concerned with saving the earth than in taking care of myself and those important to me. That means you probably aren’t on the important to me list. Get over it!

You see, I’m one of those wacko’s that expects there will be a time when the dollar fails, delivery of food and goods comes to a halt, fuels are unavailable, power grids shut down, urban water and sewer systems cease, general panic sets in and martial law gets declared. Like I said, one of those wacko’s.

Let’s add a bit to this scenario: Fargo, North Dakota area, winter, no electric, no LP, natural gas or fuel oil to be found and it’s cold baby, cold I tell ya. Even worse, I can’t come up with a boxcar full of US paper money to pay for filling a 20 Lb LP tank for a day of warmth even if LP were available. To borrow a saying: Houston we have a problem.

Solar electric along with wind power will become our electric supplier. Sunny days will help heat our dwelling and provide hot water. Cold nights will remain a challenge but not one with no methods in place.

So I’m realizing whether making use of solar, wind power or other alternatives would be of benefit in saving the earth, obviously it will be of great personal benefit when infrastructure is no longer structured. After all, saving the earth includes the inhabitants and as I see it that includes the human race.

Much as the prospect of this kind of thing happening scares the daylights outta me, the prospect of just how dangerous those who chose to have no clue will become scares me far more.