(no subject)

[jeshyr]

Bag not found - have assumed it's a lost cause and won't be :(

On the plus side, found an $8 replacement at the op shop which will do for now. Maybe I can adapt it to suit better...

Replaced some lost stuff - there goes the "rainy day" fund for this year.



This morning I have sorted through and filed all the crap in my physical "in" tray. Paid all the outstanding bills I could. Noted everything down in my accounting thingy. Made some phone calls. Discovered some important paperwork that was due a month ago (oops...) in said tray. My productivity is epic!


Another epic thing has been my toilet this past week. It got itself thoroughly blocked with what turned out to be zillions of tiny matted tree roots and the entire bathroom got covered in backed-up raw sewerage which was really unpleasant. So far we're at 4 plumbing visits and counting ... there's only a tiny leak left though, it's 99.99% fixed. One of those rare times I am grateful I don't own this house so the plumbing bills are not my problem!

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

So sorry about your bag, but your awesome productivity deserves a beautifully stitched tapestry.

Did those tiny tree roots grow in to the sewer pipe?

[acelightning]

actually, that's a very common ocurrence with sewer pipes, if there are trees planted nearby. almost all sewer pipes develop miniscule leaks eventually, usually where two lengths of pipe are fitted together. sewage is full of nutrients that plants want, so the tree sents tiny rootlets through the soil, right into the joint between the pipe segments. and in the presence of so many nutrients, the rootlets proliferate until they fill up the entire width of the pipe and create a clog. a plumber can "snake out" the clog, but it will come back after a while. a plumber can also replace the segments of pipe where the roots are getting in; it will still come back, but it'll take longer. the only permanent solution is to re-route the pipe away from any trees.
</explainer>

[jesse_the_k]

Awesome explainer, thanks!

[acelightning]

some people don't like it when i explain things. but i've got a headful of random information, and somewhat of a compulsion to share it...

[jesse_the_k]

In fact I share both those qualities. Or as my email sig used to put it, "I'm not pompous, I'm pedantic. There's a difference; let me tell you all about it."

[acelightning]

i don't consider myself pedantic, exactly; it's more like this:

[jeshyr]

My understanding is that these are almost certainly pipes which are many decades old (the building is 1950's-era I think? One power point per room...) so I suspect the pipes are terracotta which is easier for roots because they can go *through* the pipe not just in where the joins are. Is that right?

[acelightning]

i don't think the roots actually go through the terracotta. i think the terracotta develops tiny cracks over time, from thermal expansion and contraction, shifting of soil, and the occasional nearly undetectable "seismic event", and the rootlets poke through those. the net results are the same - a happy tree and a clogged pipe.

[jeshyr]

PS
I can't believe you have a purple toilet icon!!!

[acelightning]

when i realized i needed a toilet icon, i used Google Images to look for a plain, generic-looking toilet, probably white; i was going to Photoshop it to purple. but instead i found that image - a purple toilet, missing a couple of parts, sitting on a scruffy patch of lawn and not connected to anything. at the original scale, you could see that someone had painted it purple with everyday indoor house paint, because there were scratches where you could see the white porcelain underneath. but reducing it to 100x100 pixels made them too small to see. it was clearly the toilet image i wanted, without all the work, except to crop and re-size it. it's a very useful icon :-)

[jesse_the_k]

Exceptionally!

[acelightning]

i'm really sorry your bag didn't come when it was called :-(

but at least you do now have an excuse to get/make one that works even better.

*hugs*

[jeshyr]

I must admit, on the plus side having this different bag has given me a few ideas about things I'd ask for differently if I got another one made...

[acelightning]

what was the old one made of? heavy canvas, normal canvas, leatherette, leather? (my sewing machine can' handle really heavy canvas, nor can it handle leather.)

[jeshyr]

It was fairly light canvas actually, not like you'd see in a backpack or schoolbag. It just looked like dense fabric and didn't feel plastic-ish.

These are the most similar pictures.

[acelightning]

(dammit, i don't have room for my sewing-machine icon on DW!)

i have a messenger-type bag that i've been using for a purse for at least twelve or thirteen years (i know i got it after my last trip to Australia, which was 1999). i bought it from a catalog, and it was one of the first things i ever bought online. it's made out of Cordura™ nylon, which is marvelous stuff, except that the company that makes it is owned by the infamous Koch Brothers (so is the company that makes Lycra™). the body of the bag and the shoulder strap are black, and all the outside pockets are dark purple. it was meant to hold a small laptop, files or notebooks, a water bottle, and a cell phone, as well as all the usual things one keeps in a bag, so it's pretty big.

now, i abuse the hell out of any bag i carry; i overstuff it, use it for a pillow, jam it into places it shouldn't be able to fit, accidentally bang into things with it, drag it in and out of the car, and generally abuse it until it gives up. for most of my life i'd buy the best leather bag i could afford, and beat it up until it wore out; most leather bags lasted me three or four years at best. this canvas one, though, is twelve or more years old, and shows no signs of wear - if i dumped everything out of it, and washed and dried it, it would look pretty much the way it did when it was new. i've wanted to get a new bag, but i can't justify it, because this one is still perfectly good.

may you find a bag that serves you that well!