A pithy comic strip about life, love, lust and puthy cats.

Est. 1985

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The Natural

By Jimmy Johnson

I repaired a bathroom faucet myself just last week. The handle on the cold-water tap had become a bit loosey goosey, so I took it apart to see what I could do about it. Let me tell you: modern faucets are different. I couldn’t quite figure it out, so I took the big nut off to delve deeper into the problem. Without warning, a geyser of cold water hit me in the face, carrying with it an assortment of O-rings and springs and unidentified plastic doodads. It was like something out of a comic strip! Fortunately, the shut-off valves under the sink were properly installed and functioning. As I said, modern faucets are different. I had to disassemble the perfectly good hot-water tap just to learn how to reassemble the miniature innards that I had, with some effort, managed to locate. It took a little reverse engineering and a lot of trial and error, but I finally got both taps back together and working. If I were that smart, you’d think I’d have known to cut the water off first.  

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40 responses to “The Natural”

  1. Steve from Royal Oak, Mi Avatar

    You are lucky that the shut-off valve worked. They sit for a ong time and we never use them. Then they get rusted on and stuck.

  2. Jim in TN Avatar

    I always think that the plumbing should know what you are ding at turn itself off for you!

    I can’t figure out why that hasn’t been invented yet…

    Alexa, turn off the water to the sink. Alexa: Yes master… 😉

  3. Jeff in Ann Arbor Avatar
    Jeff in Ann Arbor

    The complexity of any job I do at home is measured by the number of trips to the hardware store.

  4. Hoagie from Mass Avatar
    Hoagie from Mass

    LOL – all that and we used to be able to change our own spark plugs – LOL

  5. Thomas Avatar
    Thomas

    Good save on the faucet,not having to replace the whole thing,as sometimes happens to me on a repair job!
    When I bought a house,I thought I’d live in it. I was wrong,I just work on it. I live in the hardware store!

  6. Debbie from Alabama Avatar
    Debbie from Alabama

    Did you know the righty, tightly lefty loosely doesn’t work if you are behind the thing you are working on? Only if you are facing it. HE had never told me that before!!

    1. Sideburns Avatar

      That mnemonic has never made a bit of sense to me, because I never know if it’s the top or the bottom that’s moving. I much prefer clockwise or counterclockwise because it doesn’t matter where you’re standing or how you look at it.

      1. Steve from Royal Oak, MI Avatar

        Yeah but what if you use a digital clock! 🙂

  7. hc Avatar
    hc

    Oh …. I have changed spark plugs! – that dates me
    I have also changed door locks, door knobs/handles
    and yes – multiple faucets and taps.
    Women’s work is never done!

  8. Old Bear Avatar
    Old Bear

    C e-p
    I did say for the job at hand –
    You need a helper to turn off the water as you hold your hand over the geyser.
    An associate is likely to have a TARDIS.

    The average is 2.7 trips to the Hardware Store per project.
    While working at the hardware store my first advice to those doing plumbing –
    “Turn off the water”

    The valve under the sink usually will work when you close it.
    The problem arises when the valve is opened – 75% of the time they leak
    around the stem. – That is why the 1/4 torn valve is so nice.

    The days get longer after tomorrow 🙂 🙂

    BTW this site does not remember my name the next day. Even when the box is checked.

  9. Old Bear Avatar
    Old Bear

    Do you remember when we CLEANED spark plugs?

    1. hc Avatar
      hc

      YES ! done that too

      1. Sideburns Avatar

        I took auto shop in high school. Not only did we have to clean spark plugs, we had to learn how to solder with a big copper soldering “iron” that was heated over a gas flame. You knew it was hot enough when the flames turned green. Imagine the uproar if you let teens use something like that in shop class today!

    2. Hoagie from Mass Avatar
      Hoagie from Mass

      We used to set the spark using matchbook covers as a gauge if one wasn’t handy. Which brings up another item gone from my lifestyle. Matchbooks.

  10. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    I’ve never done plumbing or changed spark plugs. I have put up storm doors, screen doors, cat doors, light switches, window fans (while improvising a bracket to keep them in the window), ceiling lights and the outside garage light. Never fell off a ladder or started a fire yet. But if it involves crawling under a house, that is somebody else’s job!

    1. hc Avatar
      hc

      Yes – did a ceiling fan too – and it has 4 lights as part of it. There was some unladylike language involved – but it does work

  11. TruckerRon Avatar

    I just got my first call threatening me with arrest from the Treasury Enforcement Bureau! I must be quite the desperado to be wanted by them, the IRS, and Social Security all in the same month.

  12. emb Avatar
    emb

    Old Bear: True but sunrises are still inching later. They begin to get earlier about 4 Jan. Peace,

  13. Steve from Royal Oak, MI Avatar

    Jimmy, I guess that you are multi-fauceted.

    Years ago GM put an engine in that made you pull the entire engine in order to change the plugs. So that meant that they had to develop spark plugs that could last a long time. Once they did that, and eliminate the points, tune-ups became a thing of the past.

    I did change the plugs on my daughter’s Honda Civic as she somehow had flooded them out. It immediately improved the performance and the fuel efficiency, but there really isn’t a need to do it anymore.

  14. curmudgeonly ex-professor Avatar
    curmudgeonly ex-professor

    Sideburns, clockwise or counterclockwise does change with position. A spinning top, for example, may be spinning clockwise when viewed from the top, but it will be seen as going counterclockwise if viewed from the bottom. Maybe a better example would have been a gyroscope because one can actually move such a device while it is in motion – not so much fr a top.

    Storms, as on weather reports, are another example. In the N hemisphere, most (not all) tornados are seen as counterclockwise from weather satellites, but a surviving earthbound person would think it was circling clockwise.

    1. Sideburns Avatar

      I was thinking in terms of a screw sticking out of a board. No matter which side of the board you’re standing on, clockwise and counterclockwise remain the same.

  15. curmudgeonly ex-professor Avatar
    curmudgeonly ex-professor

    Cleverest thing this non-mechanically-inclined person ever did was to cut open an empty can from the kitchen, removing top and bottom totally, then slicing the side. Then, with the aid of a higher-than-usual curb and on a vehicle with decent clearance, wrapping the can around the exhaust pipe to cover a significant [i.e., noise-inducing] rust hole, and wiring it on. Hey, it worked….

  16. Rick in Shermantown, Ohio Avatar
    Rick in Shermantown, Ohio

    Jimmy:

    Life imitates art.

  17. Bob in Orland Park Avatar
    Bob in Orland Park

    My plumbing tool box contains a cell phone and a phone book.

    1. Steve from Royal Oak, MI Avatar

      Phone Book? What’s that? lol. I have been at my present job 16 years and always brought in an extra yellow pages book from home to look things up. About 10-12 years ago a co-worker asked me why I still had it on my desk and I realized that I use Google now.

      It used to be everyone was listed in the phone book and you could call them. Most cell phone numbers are not listed anywhere. Of course we can still locate many using social media.

  18. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    I’m really enjoying this sequence with the aluminum Christmas tree, Jimmy. It is very close to my own life. Thank you for bringing those memories back.

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