I have a new one in a secret place... well, actually it's http://blockhead.journalspace.com but anyway, though I'd come back here and see what was up. Apparently my blog is still getting hits even though I never update it. This I do not understand... except that it must be people looking for some other kind of blockhead. I think there's a band, maybe many...

Anyway, here's something I posted recently at journalspace:

Our Stupid Shower

The other day my mom referred to our little house as "a handyman's dream," and at first I was kind of annoyed, but I have to admit she's right. It's not as if it was in top condition when we bought it, and during the years that we were poor (ie, before hubby's business started making money, and after I decided I wasn't going to work full time anymore because I wanted to Be a Writer) we've let so many things go! And now the Bear stands ready to destroy any improvements we make and it seems silly to get, say, new carpet before he's potty-trained.

But anyway. One of the things we really need to take care of is our stupid shower. Or rather, it's not the shower that's stupid, but us, because we kept trying to fix it on the cheap, and of course nothing we did (or paid annoying not-very-handy handymen to do) worked. It's the main bathroom shower-tub, which we use instead of the teeny shower in the teeny master bath because in that one you bonk your elbows on the faucet handles. Well, in this main shower, first the cold water handle went, then the one in the middle that switches between the showerhead and the tub faucet. For a long time we used vice-grips to turn them, then Roo stole the vice-grips and squirreled them away somewhere. Now we use a great big rusty old pliers, which at least are too big for him to hide. So when you're ready for your shower the thing to do is use the pliers to turn on a bit of cold, then add the hot and wait til it's just right. But then when you use the pliers to turn on the shower, it might turn out that the pressure isn't right, or you misjudged on the amount of cold, so you have to ply the pliers again. (As a conservation-minded Californian, I used to turn the water off while I used the soap, but it's way too much trouble these days.) Then when you're through you use the pliers to turn the showerhead off FIRST, to make sure it's all the way off, otherwise when you go to clean the tub or draw a bath for Roo, the water comes pouring out on your head.

Well, it's all a giant pain in the arse, so when life settles down in the year 2020 or so, we'll tear out the whole damn thing and put in a fancy whirlpool bath!

Fascinating, eh?