This weekend was pretty productive with significant progress on remaining vehicles, aircraft, buildings, and terrain for the Barbarossa campaign, but it looks like everything hobby is going to come to a screeching halt.
Yesterday evening, when it began raining in the front hall, I was pretty sure something was amiss. It doesn't usually rain in the front hall, and even though it was just a light sprinkle, I grew concerned.
Turns out that the new weather pattern wasn't caused by global warming, and after ripping out a wall and some searching between the upstairs floor and ceiling, I found a possible source. A very slow leak in our prehistoric plumbing that has been very slow for some time. I then discovered that the real culprit of the evening rain was caused by a second leak, in the drain to the tub.
At a minimum, it will cost replacement of a wall and ceiling, and depending on the general condition of the old pipe, could involve a lot more then that. The start of the repair will involved being on my knees quite a bit, and also being upside down a little while.
The tricky part is that about ten days ago, I was involved in a fall while hiking, that resulting in injuring both patellar tendons, so I can't kneel, and getting up and down is quite a complicated procedure. Despite the hand sized area on the side of one knee, where I have no tactile sense in the skin (compressive nerve injury), under the skin it hurts profusely if pressure is applied to the knee.
The fall resulted from the combination of a fallen tree, and someone else doing something dumb, then literally sliding under my feet. Forty-five feet later, down a 65-70 degree incline, I performed a lovely tuck and roll into a bristling clump of poison ivy, just after ramming planet earth with both knees.
The reality is that I came out of it smelling like a rose. I've dealt with enough accidents at work over the years (working accident reconstruction) to know that I shouldn't have walked away from that, let alone just brushing myself off and been able to hike another 4.3 miles after the fall. As Yukon Cornelius said, "The bumble bounces."
Did I mention poison ivy? A goodly portion of my back and a little of my arm are covered in it. I look like I have leprosy, though this might itch a bit more? Not sure.
Anyway, I suspect that I won't be getting much hobby time in the coming days, while I tend to disassembly of the house. Despite all that has happened, the worst part of all of this clearly is the loss of hobby time.
Oh well; ache, itch, repair. Be careful out there.
