$1420 Richer and/or Titanic Found

Well, Fernando did it with a little help from me. . .his helpmate. (confused? check out My Limit post a few days back) We have running water. Luckily for us, this water problem happened on his post call day which bumps straight into post post call which is a fancy term for the day off. With all the know how given to us the night before from the water company people--->

WAIT-
I need to give a shout out to the 3 men on call that night from the water company. All they had to do was check the city's side of things, but then the dug down in search of things we didn't even know existed. Then proceeded to convince us how easy, but time consuming the job would be (step by step instructions) and that the plumber wasn't needed. One guy even offered to come by and do it for us at a fraction of what it cost our other friends who had paid out for the same problem: $150+ parts compared to $1600.

RETURN TO OUR SAGA--
Fernando had come home from the hospital eager to become Mr Roter Rooter himself. Tiago and him headed of to Lowe's with big ideas and tool hungry feelings.
After jimmy rigging a few things like a box fan (if it was 85 degrees at 6:30 am the other day, imagine the temperatures at 2 pm and blue skies), we started our plumbing project that wouldn't find its end until 9 pm that night.



The kids would come and go excited for a few moments to see the process and play in the nearly 2 full wheel barrel amounts of dirt. Fernando and I got the chance to laugh and sweat and conjure up revengeful letters to the builders for their sub-par plumbing that wasn't even close to code. It was great! Working in glasses. . .dumb idea.


Several hours later through feet of San Antonio clay we found a part of the Titanic:

Ok, not really. It really should be a PRV (pressure release valve) that wasn't corroded beyond all recognition. I did feel pretty tough when I broke the "metal" (or what was left of it) with my bare hands.

Fernando headed back to Lowes with a better idea of what we would need and I got a chance to pause our fine babysitter named Nemo in order to feed the kids. When he returned, we started in on cutting pipes and preparing to refit our home with a normal PRV and return to the life of indoor plumbing we had been missing.

At this point, our neighbor, curious as to why we were waist deep in digging out our grass, came over to tell us that he had also lost pressure and had to get it fixed. He also told us that one quick call to the home builders was made and promptly a plumber came for free to make the repair. I ran inside and started googling our builders, but it was 15 minutes too late. Even with generous offers from friends to stay in their vacant homes, living with the hopes of repair wasn't good enough. We had come this far and we were going to finish it.

Here is the final product:



The glue was given the chance to dry, Fernando returned all the undesired tools while I mowed the lawn, and PRESTO:


This cost us $80 in parts, $130 in tools (probably could have been much less, but Fernando loves him some tools), and an afternoon of self-reliance discovered.

3 Seconds

Thursday morning bright and early we headed to the base to cheer Fernando as he attempted to max his time in the PT test. The military requires each of their pawns (for lack of a better word) to pass a physical fitness exam each year. The test involves a waist measurement, sit and push up timed test, and a 1 1/2 mile timed run. For his age, he had to run the mile and a half under 9 minutes and 48 seconds.


We waited patiently on the bench and eating breakfast and enjoying the early morning 85 degree temperature (at 6:30 am that's ridiculous)
When he started, we had great hopes for him. Anyone who has seen Fernando run, knows what an amazing site it is. The first lap was completed in a little over a minute! On his final lap, he was hurting. The rules specifically state that you can pace the run so long as no one pushes or pulls the runner. I threw off my flip flops and decided to run in front of Fernando for the last 1/4 of the track. I tried to keep ahead of him and it was hard. I tried to think of all the motivational screams I had heard from all the sports movies I had seen. I don't think he really noticed me. The finish line brought a disappointing time: 3 seconds short of his goal. It's one thing to miss it by 20 seconds. 20 seconds are a lifetime in running, but 3 seconds are doable. Not to say that I was disappointed in him, but he was really disappointed.

Good thing our cheerleaders doubled as a booster club. Go Team Tovar!

My Limit

I have often thought how silly it is for movies to romanticize the past. In all honesty, the people would have smelled bad due to lack of conveniences I hold dear. Never once have I taken for granted indoor plumbing and dread the thought that someday terrible water shortages might prevent me from doing my laundry, washing my dishes, flushing the toilet, and washing all the dirty hands in my house. Unfortunately, today, water has ceased to flow from the faucets. We frantically called the water company and they sent out a person to investigate. We headed out to Sea World in hopes of enjoying the carefree, but toilet free afternoon at a place were water flows freely. (well if you don't count the price of our season passes)

Problem still not solved. A new level of gratitude has emerged from my soul for indoor plumbing and water storage. (I guess I should work on my food storage a bit more diligently).

UPDATE----
So at about 10 last night, the water company came out again to investigate. Fernando had be troubleshooting and got nowhere. We lucked out with the crew that came to investigate. Instead of just checking the line pressure (which is all they are required to do) they dug around in hopes of finding some other important plumbing fixtures that seemed to be missing. I guess when the builders built our home they didn't think building up to code was really all that important. They buried our emergency shut off valve deeper than it should be (like a foot deeper) and didn't appropriately case our PVR component which is buried under a foot and a half of San Antonio clay dirt and grass.

Confession--When the inspectors did their magical prebuying inspection they discovered that our outside water pressure was too high. It was reading 105 psi when it should be somewhere between 45-80 psi. We had tried to negotiate with the sellers to fix the property, but they graciously declined and we bought the house and promptly put that problem on the back burner. Our water worked fine (up until yesterday that is). . . let's buy other "essential things" like lawnmowers (2 of them in fact, a MAC, several pieces of furniture, a minivan etc etc)

I guess somethings should have been higher up on the priority list.

Texas Roadhouse

(Ladies ride side saddle unless you are holding the leftovers)


As mentioned in many a post, Fernando isn't always around during the day or night. Sometimes that makes cooking undesirable. Solution, print out a free appetizer coupon and head off to Texas Roadhouse. With people being allowed to throw peanuts on the floor (even though they technically have a discard bucket next to the peanut bucket) I wasn't so worried about me and three kids at a restaurant. Ok, who are we kidding, I never care about taking my three kids out to eat. They love it so they act great. This depends if you don't care about Talia wanting to wave at you and all other patrons. The cheese fries were calorically delicious and the chicken strips were divine. Nothing beats the homemade rolls and cinnamon butter one can enjoy before their dinner comes out. Yee-Ha!

Happy Father's Day

Nothing says "I Love You" more than going to a Father's Day themed story time at a local garden center and planting pretty flowers in our yard for daddy. We devoted several cookies to Fernando.