The recent cold snap put a snap in my water pipes again, this time taking out the cold water line to the troublesome downstairs bathroom. Fixing this will be a chore, because there is almost no access to the plumbing internals of the bathroom. A meager crawl space that cannot be crawled into runs under the bathroom.
The plumber is going to try fishing some flexible Pex tubing under the floor, to avoid us having to break open the tile floor. Hopefully that works.
Next issue, our 6-month-old condensate pump decided this would be a good time to develop a crack in the reservoir, resulting in water pooling up beside the furnace. Fortunately, it was replaced under warranty, but the check valve seems to be leaking on the new one. “Made in China”.
Finally, some non plumbing / non cold related breakage. The ten year old headset on my Stumpjumper gave up. I guess this is to be expected. The upper bearing race was broken in two when we removed the old suspension fork. Looks like a new headset is in order, before installing the new (to me) Sid Race. Hopefully the new fork doesn’t mess up the handling of the old-school Stumpjumper. Went looking at new rides over the weekend, but I don’t quite know what I want. I think I want a full suspension competitive XC type bike, like a Trek Fuel or a Specialized Epic, but they are so $$ that the simple value of a hardtail is compelling. I need to figure out what kind of riding I’m going to be doing for the next five years.
