Thanksgiving

I don't know how most Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. From what I've been able to gather, though, I'm guessing a lot of it has to do with travel, food, family, friends, and, of course, for many, football. 

For me, for as long as I can remember, it's been mostly about music. Since I was old enough to read, I've been singing in choirs of various sorts and sizes. This year has been no exception. Last night I sang McCullough's For the Fruit of All Creation for a congregation of some two hundred souls. So if I had to say what I'm thankful for this year, it's that--both the opportunity and the ability to sing with a choir.

How about you? What are you thankful for this year?

Shower Cartridge

Ha! Well, while still on the subject of the several household repairs I've had to undertake recently, I might as well mention this shower cartridge. Kind of a long story. But the upshot of it all is that the rubber gaskets on the old cartridge had begun to deteriorate, causing the shower to leak. 

Like most household chores, what I thought was going to be a simple half-hour repair turned into an ordeal that took me two days, albeit some of that time was spent running back and forth to a nearby appliance store to purchase a special tool required to complete the job. Moen, by the way, (and I have to say this) as in the case of Kidde that I blogged about yesterday, sent me not one but three free replacements to help forestall any more leaks I might experience in my two other showers. 

Smoke Alarm

More home maintenance. Seems like I've been doing a lot of that lately. I guess it's time. All of the appliances in my house have a few years on them now. Still, I was a somewhat surprised to discover not only that I had to replace the battery in one of my smoke alarms, but that the whole unit needed to be replaced. Somewhat puzzled, I called Kidde's service personnel and was pleasantly surprised when they offered to send me a replacement (shown above) free of charge. Nice!