Like Texas Fred, I’ve been down with the flu for the past five days.  Every system involving bodily fluids has been affected.  I’m sure you can do the visuals.

That said, the past week has also been remarkably expensive.  The water pump and tensioner went out on my Toyota, necessitating the replacement of the pump, lines, belts, tensioner — and a general service with recall.  Oil splayed all over the engine compartment.  Chalk that up to $800.

This morning, I slank (past participle of slunk) creakingly out of bed at 6 AM for a bathroom call.  I then headed for the laundry room to turn off the porch light.  My bare feet came into shockingly-cold contact with the completely soaked runner in said laundry room.  I turned on the ceiling light.  The entire floor was flooded.  I looked at the water heater.  It was leaking at the rate of about a drip a second from the base.

I peeked through the glass.  The pilot was still lighted.  But for how long?

I knew the water heater was kaput.  It was over 10 years old, a direct-vent State.  Somewhere in the tank, it had sprung a leak.  I didn’t know if the leak was high or — gulp — low.  I had no way of knowing without completely removing the outer metal jacket and exposing the inner insulation.  And at 6 AM in my underwear, that wasn’t happening.

Between bathroom jaunts, I managed to pull up the runner, put it outside to drain, and then attempted to mop up as best I could with a number of towels.  They quickly became sodden and I had to leave the door open — it was 38-degrees outside — in order to wring the towels dry and replace them.

I made phone calls.  A number of them.  One plumbing company actually responded (God bless them!).  The leak was so low, I had to put a dinner plate on the floor to collect the water.  I ended up dumping this plate roughly every five minutes.  Suffice to say, until the company arrived, I was rather occupied with towels and draining.  I had to move the washer and dryer in order to sop up the H2O.

In between necessary bathroom bouts.

I have linoleum on the floor, but the area directly beneath the water heater is exposed flooring.  It got wet.  Luckily, not soaked to the max because I caught the leak before it went too far.

My first thought: if I weren’t home sick, I would not have caught the leak.  It would have continued unabated until I returned four days later.  That meant the entire heater (of the 50-gallon variety) would have dumped its water continuously, snuffed the pilot, continued with the propane, and then ruined the entire first floor of my home.

The first time I’ve ever been absolutely overjoyed at being home sick.

Luckily, ABT Plumbing located an appropriate water heater and installed same.  Thanks to Paul and Ben.  $3,300 later.  But I got a $10 discount.  They still owe me some earthquake straps, however.

Yeah.  It was an expensive week.  HMOG.  To the tune of $4,100 +.

As I write this, I am totally exhausted.  I had to stay up, of course, whilst they worked.  And everything still needs to be cleaned up.  The laundry room is bereft of the bulk of its stuff, as I had to move it all into the dining room.  Where it still rests.  I’ll try to get to it tomorrow in between bathroom and Kleenex bouts.  I just don’t possess the chuff currently.  I think I’m writing this because I was so wound up, all day.  I’m trying to bleed a bit of adrenaline and such.

I almost forgot the significance of today’s date: December 7th.  71 years ago, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and America’s involvement in WWII began.  Some photographs you won’t find on Google:

There are fewer than a couple of hundred thousand WWII veterans left.  Roughly 600 die a day.  There will come a time, shortly, when none of these valiant men will be around.

And finally, though this blog post is both long and all over the map:

I purchased a new phone.  And I am very happy with my choice.

I had an Apple iPhone 3GS.  People at work had iPhones.  I previously owned an LG.  My compatriots owned the 3G.  I purchased the 3GS for me and my wife.  I thought I was shitting in the tall cotton.  Of course, the iPhone 4 and 5 passed me by.

In the meantime, my wife wanted an update.  I purchased the Samsung Galaxy Note for her earlier this year.  She was extremely pleased with its performance and relinquished her iPhone 3GS willingly.  The Note was significantly larger than her previous iPhone.  But she still enjoyed its abilities.

In the meantime, I was seriously considering the Samsung Galaxy S3, which many of my co-workers had.  It’s a beautiful and wonderful phone.  It received the top recommendation from Consumer Reports.

Then the Note II came out.  My wife became instantly jealous.

It is slightly taller and slightly less wide.  It is also slightly less in weight.

I liked her phone.  So I purchased a Samsung Galaxy Note II for me.

It may be the ultimate “anti-iPhone.”

It’s huge and brilliant and responsive and huge and brilliant.  Did I mention huge and brilliant?  Or responsive?

It’s not for everyone.  But at my advanced age, I adore the big screen, the thin depth, and the fact that I’ve paired it up with not only my RAV4 but with a new BlueAnt earpiece.  It has a screen I can actually SEE.

It’s large, but I checked first: it fits in all of my Carhartt T-shirts and my uniform shirt.  It just doesn’t fit in my vehicle cupholders any more.  Out-thrust lower lip displayed now.

But having used both iPhone and Android systems: I like Android a lot better.

And Apple pissed me off with its new different iPhone charging cord.

My Samsung Galaxy Note II is huge, but I’m loving the hell out of it.  I’m also discovering: I charged the iPhone 3GS at least once daily.  I’m charging the Note II every other day.  On the stock battery.

Any thoughts?

BZ

P.S.
It has an 8mp camera.  I was amazed.  Here is an example: