Houston, we don't have a problem, except for our hockey team

As I mentioned last week the spring cartridge in the RV toilet finally gave way last week and it is not a part that is routinely carried by RV supply stores because there are only a zillion different types of spring cartridges and it would not make sense for them to keep them all on hand.

Pre-game at the Toyota Center in Houston

The part arrived during the middle of the week, but we were busy sightseeing so I had always planned to fix the potty today.

I approach every plumbing job with the same trepidation that a good golfer probably approaches a shot from behind a tree where the shot must not only get around the tree but over a serious water hazard. In other words, if everything lines up right and the stars are aligned in proper order it COULD go right. But usually it doesn’t. That to me is plumbing.

After looking through the owner’s manual and getting a handle on what I was facing I sent Joan off to get her nails done as most of my plumbing jobs include a few choice words for the toilet. So with Joan safely out of ear shot I returned to the trailer and promptly discovered that I didn’t have a screwdriver short enough to fit in the space.

So I drove to a couple nearby stores and they didn’t have the right tool either. So I went to the RV park office and a man inside said he had the right sized screwdriver and offered to loan it to me for the job.

Puck drop for the first period - it got much worse from here

OK, with the trips to the two stores and then to the office I figured my other plumbing maxim had been fulfilled: Every plumbing jobs include at least three trips to the hardware store.

Down on the floor, I removed the old part and quickly installed the new part and Voila! It worked. I had to pinch myself to realize that the job really was that easy. Even after I reassembled the toilet it took me a few minutes to realize the job was over and that it actually worked. Probably saved me about $50 in labor costs at my friendly RV service center too.

Bad enough the stupid part, which has about 35 cents of material in it, cost nearly $30.

After her nails were done, Joan went shopping for all the groceries we will need for our return to Michigan orbit next week and we had a nice ham steak for dinner.

Thought I would take a picture of the pain

So we headed to the Toyota Center for the first of two nights of hockey. When we arrived here we learned that the Grand Rapids Griffins, the minor league AHL franchise of the Detroit Red Wings, my favorite team, would be here for a two-day series against the Houston Aeros, which are the farm team of the Minnesota Wild.

I’m not really a Griffins fan, but I needed a hockey fix and the Griffins are the closest thing to the Red Wings so we bought tickets to both nights.

If only the Griffins scored as many goals as fights they got in they might have kept this one close, but alas at the end of the night our team lost 5-1.

I quit taking pictures after four goals

An interesting side note is that playing goalie for the Red Wings was Ty Conklin, who started the season with the Red Wings, but whose career seems to be on the sunset side. The Aeros lit him up early and often and while he didn’t get much help from the defense he let in three bad goals.

Kind of sad to see his career go this way. The fans were nice even though we were rooting for the enemy and we noted a number of Red Wings fans in the stands.

One good thing though, because the home team scored five goals there is a bar downtown that will give us free appetizers if we bring in our ticket from the game. We already got a free chicken sandwich at the San Antonio Rampage game (Remember the "Four for fowl" promotion). This must have been "Five for Fries"

We’re hoping for better tomorrow night.