Four days is the proper amount of time for a weekend. It gives you enough time to see everyone, get your chores/projects done, and spend quality time on the couch or in the chair recharging your batteries.
Our visit down south was eventful. I spent a large portion of the time replacing my fathers garbage disposal and kitchen sink faucet. I don’t think my father cooks very often and I would bet that his kitchen sink goes days without use. With his garbage disposal on the fritz, it was almost impossible to cook in his kitchen. Any little piece of food that went down the drain immediately backed up the sink. To remedy this problem, my father had on hand a little something called the Kleer Drain, which is basically a heavy duty device that in form looks like a plunger but in function acts more like a small atomic bomb. With the pull of a trigger it sends a charge of forced air down the drain and blows the pipes completely out. The unfortunate side effect of this plumbing enema is that the person working the Kleer Drain gets covered in sink jelly. The Kleer Drain had to be called in twice during the Thanksgiving meal preparations, which was two more times than I had a tolerance for. So after dinner was over I got busy swapping out the old disposal for the new one (which he had bought THREE years ago but had never bothered to instal).
Friday, the new disposal was working fine but when the misses made coffee and went to turn off the kitchen faucet the entire thing popped off the sink basin. Kelly and I found this to be utterly hilarious. Father did not. It was obvious to me (although I didn’t want to tell dad) that the violent force of his Kleer Drain technology had basically broken every seal in the plumbing of his kitchen sink.
A new faucet meant we had to make a trip into town. After procuring a new faucet we stopped in at some antique stores where I found some nice underpriced mod lamps, and a vintage Minnesota Twins pennant. There was also this killer vintage pram from the 50’s or 60’s that I lobbied for hard but the misses vetoed because of its impracticality. She was right of course. But it would have been sweet. Here’s kind of what it looked like.
Back at the house, the new faucet was installed and other sink repairs were made. I pleaded that henceforth the Kleer Drain be only used on toilets. And I don’t want to be anywhere in the vicinity when that goes off.
*Update: Just got off the phone with dad. Last night the bears ripped open all his trash cans and spread the remains of Thanksgiving dinner all over the yard.