July 29, 2011

  • And The Beast Goes On And On....


    TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

    Today the Beast got down to the business of adding the water softener to the hot water heater.  He filled up one of my shopping bags with the various fittings he was going to need, the pipe glue and pipe cleaner, the hand tools he would need, including his pipe cutter.  Then he headed down to the crawl space and started doing his thing.  This took a lot more time than he had hoped it would.  He took breaks because he had other projects he wanted to do. 

    One of the projects was removing the scale that had built up in the coffee maker.  It's a Bunn with a storage tank on it so there is always hot water available for a pot of coffee.  It's really amazing because you can actually make one pot after another, the water heats so fast.  I love it and told the Beast when it dies, be prepared because I don't care that it's gone up in price, I will have no other in my house any more.  He laughed but he knew I wasn't kidding.  If I ever stopped drinking coffee, I guess I would feel differently but I don't right now.

    So what does he use?  CLR.  Oh, it's not the same harsh chemical that it was once.  It's now *eco-friendly*.  Biodegradable.  Plus I read the label and it's recommended for cleaning the scale out of coffee makers.  Now, I am as anxious as anyone with ridding my coffee maker of scale.  It interferes with heating, makes your coffee maker draw more electricity and it does affect the taste.  BUT.....the tank on my Bunn holds a pot and a half of water in it.  I'm sure CLR is not harmless to anyone that ingests it.  So I worry about flushing all the CLR out of it.  Wouldn't you?  I sure as hell don't want to take any chances with drinking it.

    It really did a good job if I judge by the pieces of scale that we flushed out.  The Beast poured 14 or 15 pots of water into it trying to just flush out the scale that had been loosened.  Then I took on the job and did another 10 pots.  It wasn't until the 8th one that I poured into it that I stopped getting big pieces of scale.  Another two pots before the smaller pieces couldn't be found in the pot.  I figured anything else will get caught by the coffee filter since it would be small.  I smelled the water and even tasted it to make sure there was no residual CLR in it.  Okay....okay....maybe 25 pots of clean water was a little bit of overkill on cleaning it out but the very idea of any being left in it (with the amount of coffee that *I* drink) was scary.

    I actually poured out the first pot of coffee that I made after no scale was found in the flushed water.  It smelled a bit funky to me.  The next pot smelled and tasted just fine.  If I don't show up tomorrow, you'll know I wasn't thorough enough.    It would have been a lot easier on me if we had a Mr. Coffee or some other brand that has a reservoir you fill up.  But an enclosed storage tank like my Bunn....well,  you can't look inside and see whats going on.  Better safe than sorry.

    The Beast had to make two different runs to Lowe's today while doing his *project*.  The first time was when he ran out of the PVC piping.  Then he ran out of fittings (elbows and others).  I just shook my head because the Beast used to have a good handle on all the fittings he would need for a job and it would work out perfectly.  I guess it's his age or something related because I can't think of a single job he's done with PVC the last couple years (except for the charcoal filters he installed) where he hasn't had to make several trips to the store for more fittings mostly.  That's what really made me dislike his starting projects.  No matter what, it always also included some kind of inconvenience also.  Like no water to the house.  With Chewlee, that often meant she couldn't flush the toilet.  She has a little bladder and also poops quite frequently.    That's just the one that plagued us the last couple of days.

    Yesterday, she really needed and wanted a bath.  However, that became impossible even though Chewlee went to the Beast and asked him to turn on the water for her.  She came in upset because he told her he couldn't for a while.  When he finally got it turned back on, she wanted one then but I had to tell her NO because it was almost time for the Princess to come for her.  That reminds me....I have to remember to ask her what *water day* was at the preschool.  I'm really curious to find out how they entertained those kids with water.  They all had to bring their bathing suits and Chewlee LOVES her bathing suit with it's hearts all over it.  I'm sure she pointed them out to everyone that would listen.

    I made up the *ghost spray* for Chewlee today and texted the Princess to let her know about it.  I also wanted to remind her that SHE would have to spray it around Chewlee's bedroom for her when they got home tomorrow night.  It smells nicely of flowers.  I had intended to use a different bit of perfume in it originally but remembered I had this body spray that Chewlee loved because it *smells like flowers, Grandma*, as she told me.  She loved when I would spray a little on her neck and wrists at times after she had a bath.  I had put it up and forgotten about it.

    The Beast bought a really nice spray bottle that's purple (one of her favorite colors).  It kind of surprised me that he remembered that.  The bottle itself is even pretty.  It's not your usual round one.  It's shaped kind of squared and flared at the bottom.  Very pretty.  I hope it does the job for her because she shouldn't be afraid to go to bed because of *ghosts*, even if she's just dreaming them.  It should give her some peace, I hope.  I'll let you know.

    Love you all.  Have a great weekend.  We have rain to look forward to tomorrow but, since we cut back all the bushes that seemed to have been affected by the water softener's water, the rain should help we hope.  I would hate to lose my yellow roses that are next to the barn (shed) and the Beast's blueberry bushes.  So we don't get any fruit on them this year.  Who cares?  As long as they live.  I wish everyone good weather.