When I got up yesterday morning the kitchen sink was covered (not comprehensively, but quite randomly) with hazard tape. My wife had come to bed after me the night before and had said there was a problem, but I hadn't quite processed it until I got downstairs. There was also a sign saying "Don't Touch! Bleach Leak". So I made my coffee without pouring anything down the sink and then had a look underneath.
My wife has a mortal fear of bleach (I don't mean she's unhygienic, I just think her parents were particularly efficient in warning scaring her about its irritant qualities and unefficient in letting her know how to deal with it safely). So I took care and had a good look and it turns out that the seal on the top of the drain had come away. I took the pipes apart anyway to see what was what and was a bit disgusted to find that there was an old biro stuck in the pipe. We've lived here for five years and it wasn't either of us, so someone's tried to unblock it by sticking a pen down there and it's been sitting there all the time we've been in the house.
Although as a man I am honour-bound to at least appear to know what I'm talking about, I am (as the sign above says) not a plumber and while it was tempting to pop to a hardware store and get new parts and sealant and have a go myself, I do actually know my limits and it really was best to get someone else in to do it. I'd love to be able to be the guy who has all the tools and materials and knowhow, but I'm not. I'm a writer, a musician, an artist - and so I painted a little sign to remind future self not to even think about it.
We called a plumber, I went to work this morning and by the time I'd come home for lunch it was all done. Hurrah!
I'm seeing more and more of my friends getting ratty about crypto. They're out with pitchforks for NFTs at the moment. Because apparently it's all scammers. My friend Vinay thinks it's a generational problem. I agree (even though I'm even older than he is) but I also think it's about the degree to which you're invested in the current economic paradigm. It's much easier to "get" crypto if the mainstream system has failed you. The "scammers" line also makes me think "do these people use e-mail? with all that spam pouring into their inbox every day, everyone on e-mail must be a scammer or a mark!" hmmm... Fear, envy, self-pity - all strong motivators. Having been here for a while, I see more than ever that this stuff isn't going away. Bitcoin might - people might just get sick of proof of work burning the planet and BTC ends up a backwater for people who've invested too much to lose - but the idea is here to stay.
I'm calling these posts Scattergun Ramblings because I'm trying to integrate and use my tendency to go all over the place. At times in my career I've been criticised for being "too scattergun" (I have ADHD, I didn't know that a year or so ago) so now I'm embracing my rambling nature firing stuff off all over the place instead of complying with the cultural pressure to focus.
