The Lord works in mysterious ways; or coincidence?
Several days ago, my wife pointed out a puddle of water between the clothes washer and the water heater. My first thought was the water heater was leaking. But there was no water in the containment tray. Being old and lazy I just cleaned up the water; went back to twiddling my thumbs.
Two days later the wife announces that the water is back. Dang! Now I got to get serious, even though I knew in my heart two days ago that these kinds of problems never go away. They only get worse.
One reason I am reluctant to work on utility room/wash room appliances is because the rooms they inhabit are small; . . . too small. Clothes dryer, washer and water heater stand shoulder to shoulder against one wall with very little wiggle room between them. Laundry baskets line the opposite wall with the room just wide enough to allow passage from the door leading in from the kitchen to the door going out into the garage. These rooms should be much bigger. And they are for those who can afford it. Ours is a middle-class laundry/utility room for a former middle class wage earner.
Alas! Give me a laundry room as large as a Roman bath, and I would be content to sleep in a cardboard box under an aqueduct.
So, I wrestle the behemoth of a front-loader away from the wall enough to peek behind it using a flash light. This is the first front-load clothes washer we have ever owned. It seems to be twice as heavy as any top-loader I have ever toyed with. Are all front-loaders like that? My first glance with the light reflected more water, but at least it was not a sopping mess. The machine is not far enough from the wall to determine where the water is coming from. More grunting and straining get me enough space to see better. I get a step stool (can’t just hop my fat, old self up on the top like I used to). From on top of the washer I can better survey the hoses, connections and drain box. What I find is a slow, but steady drip on the back of the washer, where the hot water hose attaches to the inlet valve.
OK, an easy fix. Not any of the dreaded scenarios that played through my mind that all ended in many dollar signs.
Since there was water against the wall base board, I thought I had better check the closet floor on the other side. I had cardboard boxes of precious junk stored there. I emptied the closet down to the floor, and thank goodness no water had come under the wall floor plate. While I am at it, I decide to check just what was in those boxes. I thought maybe I could discard and consolidate these treasures.
Well, that was not to be because a bit of it belonged to the wife. However, in one of those boxes, where I would have never thought to look, was my clinometer. It is a forester’s tool to measure slope grade, or tree height. It is made by Suunto in Finland. It is nothing complicated, but 45 years ago they cost from $60 to $80 (or more) depending on the model. They are now almost four times that amount. A dying American black cherry tree (Prunus serotina) not too far from our house needs to come down. I need the clinometer to determine if I could cut the tree down without it hitting the house.
I have been looking for that thing for five months!