2022 Adler Spring San Diego Trip

A cool and overcast morning and it stayed overcast all day.  We watched our church Palm Sunday service at 7:30am. I went over to Amy's when the service was over and installed a support for her temporary kitchen drain so that it pitched towards the storm sewer drain. Then it was time to start working on the new outlets by the crawlspace opening. By the time Carmen and Anna came over and it was time for brunch, I got the inside non-GFI outlet installed with wires to connect to the external GFI outlet and to connect to the existing power - hopefully the line is actually live. Amy made a delicious brunch for all of us. After lunch, we went to Balboa park for the organ concert. Anna dropped us off and while she parked the car some distance away, we walked down the canyon trail. There is a huge tree with roots extending out - not sure what kind of tree it is. At the opening of the concert, a woman came out to sing the Ukrainian national anthem accompanied by the organ. Almost everyone st...

"Jerry" is supposed to show up to take away the dirt we've dug up behind Amy's house. He has my number but doesn't know the address.  A little before 9am, Jerry texted me "Hi Boss". I asked him if he knew where to go and he said "yes". I then reminded him that we had agreed on $400 and he said that he had to bring someone else and the price was now $500. I told him the deal was off and that was the end of it. I went to Home Depot to get a Fernco fitting for Amy's kitchen drain repair. When Amy's house was inspected, there was a problem with a leak in the ABS kitchen drain which was fixed before she bought it. I was finally able to get close to it and could see that it was fixed by smearing black plastic-like stuff over one of the fittings - maybe the previous plumber forgot to glue it originally and it would have been a big job to fix. I cut the ABS kitchen line with the sawzall ...

Forecast to be another heatwave day. I started digging up more of the sewer lines and discovered that the top steel pipe appears to be an old cast iron pipe that was actually abandoned and broken on the righthand side. I should be able to cut it off on the left to provide access to the ABS pipe below. Carmen came over and helped with the digging to get all the way below the bottom pipe. The first gutter guy arrived around 9 and his supervisor arrived around 10. There was some confusion about changes to the workorder but I had a copy of the e-mail approving it. For lunch I had my leftover tostada which was still tasty - lots of shredded chicken. Beastly hot - over 90 degrees again! We dug a little more after lunch and Carmen went back to Anna's house. I took a nap until I got a call from our neighbor Maha Anand saying that the recent heavy rain had washed out part of our road at home. I called Jack and asked him to fix whatever was needed. The gutters were finished around 3 and we m...

 First thing this morning I went to Home Depot to get someone to help dig down to the sewer line outside Amy's bathroom. About a dozen Black guys came running over wanting to work. I offered one guy, "Jerry",  $50 to work for two hours. I should have checked first how well he spoke English as he was from Haiti and it was a challenge to communicate. When he started digging we encountered a white irrigation pipe and made a small hole in it, causing water to spray all over. I called the San Diego water dept to come over and shut off the water as it is connected before the house water shutoff. It became very difficult to dig and Jerry wanted more even though he had only worked for a little more than half an hour. We encountered a 4" steel pipe about 18" down - no idea what it is for. About 2' down we encountered a 4" black plastic pipe which I assume is the sewer line. When we had gotten down far enough and were basically done, I asked Jerry to carry the 50...

First thing in the morning I went over to Amy's house for various odds 'n ends. Put the wheel back on her push mower which fell off when Carmen was mowing the lawn. Used the sawzall to cut out a dead rose bush that had encircled her water shut-off for the house. Chiseled more of the concrete from the south crawlspace access to let the water out. Anna had an 11:30 doctor appointment near Home Depot so I dropped her off and did some shopping at Home Depot. Just as I was finishing loading up the car, I got a text that she was done and went back to pick her up - perfect timing! After lunch, I went back to Amy's to meet the plumber coming over to "scope" the waste lines to see where they ran. The good news is that the main house sewer connection is just a few feet from the house near her bathroom. The old cast iron waste lines running inside the house go to the back of the house which is inaccessible. It should be very simple to redo the bathroom waste plumbing with AB...

 An overcast morning and about 60 degrees. It is supposed to go up to almost 70 today but it seems that the actual temperatures are about 10 degrees warmer than forecast for the afternoon. First think this morning, I called John Padilla plumbing and arranged for someone to come out tomorrow afternoon to give an estimate on replacing the cast iron pipe and to also "scope" out the sewer lines to make sure we know where they go. I took the car over to Pep Boys to get the brakes replaced. Very luckily, just before they called to say the car was finished, I received an e-mail from Pep Boys with a survey about my experience the day before and offering a 15% discount on a subsequent service. When I picked the car up, I was able to get $75 off which was a pleasant surprise. Amy went to work at her office today and took Penny to daycare so it was pretty quiet at the house. We dug a few more loads out of the crawlspace under Amy's bathroom and it was disconcerting to see that not o...

Overcast but sunshine is starting to come out - it should be a nice day. We thought Amy was going to work this morning and were surprised to see her car in the driveway - she was surprised when we came in without warning that we were coming over. I took our Forester to Pep Boys at the end of the block to have the oil changed. When they inspected the car, they said the front brakes were dangerously low and needed to be fixed immediately of which I was skeptical. I called our Subaru dealer in Kingston and they gave me the information about the last brake thickness and it may be necessary. We spent much of the day digging out the crawlspace to access the plumbing. It is incredibly strenuous, using a trowel in the crawlspace to loosen and dig up the wet, heavy, sticky clay. Then use a hoe to pull it to the opening and then use the hoe to pull it onto a shovel to throw onto the pile. The clay is exceptionally sticky and immediately sticks to any tool that touches it. Each scoop with the tro...