(Sunday Paper, Year VI, Issue 45)

I think I’ve mentioned this before:

When it comes to technology I’m not afraid to try something new, push some buttons - there’s always the ‘undo’ option that feels like a pretty good failsafe for me.

There’s really no harm in doing something wrong.

Most of the time there’s a quick way to backtrack.

But when it comes to certain things in life I’m a little more cautious, because there’s no ‘undo’ option.

If I mess something up, it feels more permanent.

Slowly but surely, though, I’m getting more brave. It started in the yard digging things up - now that I think about it that’s probably where I’ve mentioned this before.

But that’s where I found the courage to get some plumbing work done this week.

Now, to call this plumbing work…well, I guess it falls in that category. But it’s not like I was getting into the pipes and all. I’m not that brave at the moment.

We just had a diverter situation.

For those of you who don’t know (I fell into that category before I looked up some stuff on-line), the diverter is the piece that switches the water from the tub spout to the shower.

And when Kathy went to take a shower one morning last week, the diverter wasn’t working.

Know this: We have two showers. For some reason, I am the only person who uses one of them, and Kathy and the girls use the other one.

And both bathrooms have certain issues, just by nature of the fact that it’s a house that’s getting up in years…and I don’t feel comfortable taking steps to maintain plumbing issues. (And I’m hesitant to call a plumber unless water is dripping from a ceiling. Unfortunately.)

So the diverter, as it happens, was the first shoe to drop.

And because her shower couldn’t work, Kathy showered in “my” shower. This was the second shoe to drop - because I didn’t want anyone to ever know how bad the water pressure had gotten there.

I did a little diverter research and decided I could probably fix it - there’s no digging deep into the walls and possibly breaking pipes, it seemed - and then inevitably Kathy suggested we replace the shower heads. (So I looked that up too.)

Now, while pipes don’t have an ‘undo’ button…stores like Lowe’s and Home Depot (I usually prefer Lowe’s when I can) do - I am comfortable returning things to those gigantic stores in any condition if they’re not what I need.

So, long story short: I went 0-for-1 on finding the correctly sized spout (they’re all so different!) from Lowe’s and ended up finding what I needed (pictured above) at the local hardware store…and then I went out and was feeling so good about myself I bought two new shower heads and replaced them both.

It was simultaneously satisfying to do the work and embarrassing that I waited to long to do something so easy.

Now the only problem with the shower is that it feels so nice with the new shower head and the better water pressure that I don’t ever want to get out.

Notes

*If you’re not on the ol’ Instagram you may be unaware of the drama unfolding - the “Will He Or Won’t He” in regards to whether I’ll put my name in the lottery for the 2022 Boston Marathon. Well, I’m going to at least put my name in the lottery. We’ll have more on this story before mid-December for sure.

*Last week I brought up the fact that I was reminded of having done a “Sunday Paper Live” a few years ago and I’m intrigued by the idea of doing it again. Might even do it next week, turn it into a whole weekend. I don’t know. We’ll see. Been thinking about it a lot and it’s definitely going to happen.

*I’ll certainly use all the social media for that. Usually I do it Live on the Facebook page (Like the page here!) and then transfer everything over to this space. I’m sure it’ll get mentioned on Twitter too - you can follow me on Twitter here.

*You may or may not know we’ve been kind of laying low since we still had someone in the house who was too young to be vaccinated. Well, that changed this weekend. (At least one shot’s worth.) So it might be time to start getting back out into the world. I’ll keep you posted on how that goes. Need to re-familiarize myself with comedy venues…and, I guess, whether or not I have jokes that still work.

*On that topic, here’s some breaking news that you might want to back-pocket…there are whispers about Comedy Night at Exhibit ‘A’ making its long-awaited return. Those folks have been great throughout all of this craziness keeping the venue safe for employees as well as guests…I’m thrilled to be able to do my part to help them (haha, like they’re not helping me by letting me use their space) if and when we get back to it.