A Break in the Action

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.