The Power of Positive Maintenance

Our shower doors have been behaving badly for a while. They travel on small wheels that run in a track at the top of the door, but the screws that hold the wheels onto the door have been popping loose periodically with annoying results. Then I have to disassemble the entire door assembly, replace the screws, and put it all back together again.

There's some lubricant in the track and I assumed that the folks who worked on our bathroom a few years ago had put new lubricant in. Apparently not. I consulted with samwinolj who suggested that the lube looked like white lithium grease, so I picked up a tube of that at Home Depot yesterday. After the kids went to bed, daisy_knotwise and I disassembled the door -- it having popped another screw on Friday. I wiped out the old, rather black lubricant, filled the track with fresh grease, and we put it back together.

This morning, I stepped into the shower and pulled the door closed with the usual amount of force. It slid swiftly along the track.

"Wow!" I said.

I guess it was a bit overdue for being lubed. :)

The Power of Positive Maintenance

Our shower doors have been behaving badly for a while. They travel on small wheels that run in a track at the top of the door, but the screws that hold the wheels onto the door have been popping loose periodically with annoying results. Then I have to disassemble the entire door assembly, replace the screws, and put it all back together again.

There's some lubricant in the track and I assumed that the folks who worked on our bathroom a few years ago had put new lubricant in. Apparently not. I consulted with samwinolj who suggested that the lube looked like white lithium grease, so I picked up a tube of that at Home Depot yesterday. After the kids went to bed, daisy_knotwise and I disassembled the door -- it having popped another screw on Friday. I wiped out the old, rather black lubricant, filled the track with fresh grease, and we put it back together.

This morning, I stepped into the shower and pulled the door closed with the usual amount of force. It slid swiftly along the track.

"Wow!" I said.

I guess it was a bit overdue for being lubed. :)

After the Rain

Carol, Barisha, John, and Richard came down today for a scheduled session of training and pickup of the portable recording gear. I'd called yesterday to warn them about the flooding down here, but they decided they could manage the trip as long as they avoided streets that were particularly flooded. When they arrived, we headed out to lunch at Sweet Baby Ray's. This turned out to be their monthly brunch buffet which everyone enjoyed and which was a lot of food. Then we came back to the house and had a seminar of moderate length on the gear.

While that was going on, Bob came by to pick up baseball tickets for later this week. I asked him if he was going to Milwaukee to watch the Cubs/Astros game that had been moved there tonight because of Hurricane Ike. He said he wasn't, as he was going to the games later this week and up to Milwaukee for the season finale there. This turned out to be a mistake, because Carlos Zambrano pitched a no-hitter for the Cubs tonight. Ok, now who could have predicted that?

The flooding in central Des Plaines is pretty bad, because that's where the river is and it's way over flood stage. Fortunately, we're about as far from the river as you can get and still be in Des Plaines, so it's dry here, save for the field behind the house. All of the schools in the area are closed tomorrow, which isn't a great surprise.

And the rain finally stopped in the middle of the afternoon, so with any luck, the water will start going down soon.

After the Rain

Carol, Barisha, John, and Richard came down today for a scheduled session of training and pickup of the portable recording gear. I'd called yesterday to warn them about the flooding down here, but they decided they could manage the trip as long as they avoided streets that were particularly flooded. When they arrived, we headed out to lunch at Sweet Baby Ray's. This turned out to be their monthly brunch buffet which everyone enjoyed and which was a lot of food. Then we came back to the house and had a seminar of moderate length on the gear.

While that was going on, Bob came by to pick up baseball tickets for later this week. I asked him if he was going to Milwaukee to watch the Cubs/Astros game that had been moved there tonight because of Hurricane Ike. He said he wasn't, as he was going to the games later this week and up to Milwaukee for the season finale there. This turned out to be a mistake, because Carlos Zambrano pitched a no-hitter for the Cubs tonight. Ok, now who could have predicted that?

The flooding in central Des Plaines is pretty bad, because that's where the river is and it's way over flood stage. Fortunately, we're about as far from the river as you can get and still be in Des Plaines, so it's dry here, save for the field behind the house. All of the schools in the area are closed tomorrow, which isn't a great surprise.

And the rain finally stopped in the middle of the afternoon, so with any luck, the water will start going down soon.