The flight here was pretty uneventful, aside from being delayed an hour and a half because of some unspecified mechanical problem. I hate waiting in airports, but I gotta say that a 2 hr flight and a 1 1/2 hr delay are MUCH better than a 20 hr drive, all things considered.
I got here in the expectation of being able to relax and do nothing, and instead ended up spending a good part of a couple days mixing and pouring concrete, and running drain pipe. My mother lives in a house that was built back in 1906 or so, the plumbing was added sometime in the 50s, and all the existing drainwork is that cast iron crap that apparently began to rust out some time in the 80s, judging by what I've seen under there. Problem became obvious in the last couple of years, as one corner of her house began to sink due to drainwater washing out the support beneath that corner of the house. Problem became critical a few weeks ago. As an interim solution, my mother ripped out the floorboards in the bathroom occupying that corner of the house, and pulled out all the old cast iron rust-tubes to replace it with ABS. It's a job of work, and a temporary solution only (when a ~100 year old house starts to go, there really is no stopping it, especially when it's made of mud-brick faced with fired red brick; the only thing holding the old mud-brick together right now in some places is the drywall). But we're shoring up the wall with concrete supports, replacing the drainpipe and floorboards, and redoing the flooring. I won't be here long enough to finish, but I ought to at least be able to get most of the concrete and drainwork done before I head back on Sunday. So much for laying around and goofing off...
Happy holidays, Merry Christmas, or whatever you prefer.
