It's been an interesting week. Weather in Central Texas had wind chills of 6 for a couple of days. I'd forgotten to cover at least one outside faucet before we left. We set the thermostats to 50 before we left. My bathroom scale recorded temperatures in the bedroom in the low 40s. We called a neighbor and asked him to stop by the house and check on it. He confirmed the water was frozen, and he turned water off at the cutoff. So far, so good. Even if a pipe was broken, water wouldn't be flooding the house after the thaw. I went up on Thursday to check, and, yes, there is a broken pipe. Inside the house, unfortunately. Fortunately, it's in the area of the back bathroom that has been plumbed but no fixtures installed, so once we find the break, we can just cap it off for now. That's the one bathroom I'd like to have completed, because, to me, it's just stupid to have the only upstairs bathroom in one of the bedrooms. The back bathroom has a door to a bedroom, but it also has an access from the hallway. Unfortunately, a lot of the piping seems to be run through or have access via the closet on the back porch. This closet has a vent in the floor that lets cold air from under the house into the closet. When they plumbed the house, they used PVC (I hate PVC for just this reason -- it's brittle). They insulated the pipes with that foam stuff you put over it, but when we get these hard freezes, that's not enough. Clearly, we have to do a better job of insulating that back porch and the access to under the house. There's too much open air access.
The way I could tell there was a broken pipe was from the water dripping onto the back porch after I turned the water back on. I turned the water off as soon as I saw that, but there were a few puddles inside the house as well as running down the wall inside the back door (right by the light switches -- I didn't turn any kitchen lights on from there). I walked up the back stairs to survey the inside damage, and there was a little bit of water on the landing at the top of the stairs and even less inside the bathroom area. I walked back down the stairs to get supplies to clean up the water, and my foot slipped on a puddle, and my left knee bent more than 90 degrees rather suddenly. It doesn't like to do this, so I felt immediate discomfort. It has gotten better each day since then, but that was not a comfortable 24 hours. I'm wearing a sturdy brace to keep it supported. I don't think I did any permanent damage. It feels more like I strained a few connecting tissue things. Needless to say, I got the crux of what I went to Central Texas to do done, but I decided not to do several things I had planned because of the pain. That three hour drive back wasn't fun either.
I went to pull out Polar Bear on the Loose to work on it and realized I'd brought the wrong folder. So much for that. My short stories all feel as if they are just a narrative and nothing more. I'm annoyed about data caps on my cellular hotspot access. Why oh why doesn't Verizon have data rollover? That would solve most of my problems. Whose dumb idea was it to kill the DSL service down here in San Antonio anyway? Don't answer that. I know whose idea it was.
We did get the two china berry trees taken down. We also removed the barrier between the back yard and the interior side yard, so that area will be easier to keep mowed and cleaned up now. The back yard has come a long way from the overgrown mess it was four years ago.
Lady is responding well to her Reconcile prescription. We've been able to leave her out of her cage all week. It's nice to have her integrated into the household again. We've had no incidents -- just a few warning growls from Rossie, which Lady appears to have heeded.
I met my first 5% weight loss goal this week (meaning I lost 5% of my starting body weight since January 1). I went to set another 5% goal, and the Withings app said (essentially), "Whoa, there! Let's take some time to stabilize here first." What a good idea. So I left the goal alone for a couple of days, then I reset it yesterday to my next goal, which I plan to hit between July and September. At this point, I'm between sizes -- one size feels a lithe large and the lower size feels a touch snug. Was it from the mindful eating approach or the 90 Days to A New You on Lift App? I suspect a combination of the two. I finished the first time through the 90 Days to A New You plan this week. I intended to roll it over and let it start again, but with the knee, I decided to archive it for a little while and start again when the knee is doing better. When I'm back in Central TX and have was internet access, I want to do the Office Yoga plan. I think it's about a week to ten days, and it teaches a different office yoga pose each day. That one sounds fun. I was going to do it concurrently, but I think I'll do it, then I'll consider resuming the New You plan. I don't like to get too many plans running at once, because that gets difficult to keep up with.
I have developed a significant distaste to the limitations of 4GB of cellular data. I must find a better solution. I hate being restricted in my online access, and Mr. L doesn't like me to be absorbed in the computer the whole time we're someplace that has free WiFi.
The week ahead:
- Get Cat from the airport on Sunday night and get her to her hotel
- Meet up with her and the other Texas Sideways people on Monday for dinner
- Make sure Cat has transportation when she needs it and gets to see what she wants to see Monday through Wednesday
- Head back to Central Texas on Thursday, drop Lady for boarding, and troubleshoot where the water line break is in the house
- Get parts as needed and repair water line if possible.
- Spend Friday and Saturday in Houston
- Get some useful revision done in preparation for the A-Z Challenge.
- Probably some other things that are completely escaping my brain now
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