So yesterday I lucked in to not one but TWO new plumbers, both highly recommended by people who should know. The one who returned my call first got my business: he came over and in short order unclogged the problem bathtub drain. Bill? $59.
That was one heckuva lot less than expected.
That guy surfaced on Yelp, where he has way, way more raves than anyone could possibly generate by bribing and begging one’s friends, customers, and Fiverr contractors to post there. The other man is beloved of WonderAccountant, her family, and her friends. He called later and made an excellent impression over the phone.
The first guy mostly does roto-rooting and drain clean-out, though he will do some plumbing chores. The second is a PLUMBER plumber: he installs and repairs pipes and fixtures. And, he allows, he doesn’t do much drain cleaning, largely because he doesn’t like to haul equipment up onto roofs.
My all-time favorite plumber dude feels the same about cleaning out drains. But the problem is, sometimes that’s the kind of plumbing help you need. And the problem with that is, fave plumber dude is one of those people who hates to tell people NO to their faces. So instead what he’ll do is say he’s involved in something or driving, and he’ll call you back when he returns to the shop.
Somehow, he never gets back to the shop. Like Poor Old Charlie on the MTA….
Alas, I’ve grown tired of decoding that message and have decided to hire WonderAccountant’s guy for serious plumbing jobs and the drain guy for plugs and plogs.
Besides the fact that I’ve been living with several faucets that I hate for the past 13 years, since I moved into the house, there is about to be some serious plumbing work in this place. Drain Dude says that he couldn’t retrieve the doodad that fell into the bathtub drain, and the next time it plugs up, we may have to pull out the bathtub, take out the drain, and rebuild it. Charming.
On Other Fronts…
Yesterday also saw the completion of a number of other projects: Finished the latest math paper and shipped it off to the client along with a statement. Calculated a statement for editing 14 scholarly papers, based on the varying difficulty of the respective papers, and sent that to the anthology’s editor. Calculated how much we would have earned had we charged by the word instead of by the page; reported thereon to bidness partner. Wrote a post for Plain & Simple Press. Entered budgeting data. Filed paper filed paper filed paper filed paper…. Paid bills. Tried to write a post for LinkedIn but gave up after LinkedIn crashed the damn thing, apparently erasing everything I’d written. I hoped it didn’t somehow publish it, because it wasn’t finished and of course it wasn’t even faintly proofread.
LinkedIn has revamped its site, making it difficult to navigate and difficult to use. This morning I found the errant post, which had crashed when I tried to insert a jpeg in the post. Apparently you are NOT allowed to insert images in your “articles,” except for the one you put in the banner. You can enter “multimedia” — figuring out how will take more time than I care to kill when I’m this busy. Why fix it, dear LinkedIn, if it ain’t broke?
All but two important tasks ultimately got done yesterday. Those are still hanging fire. I have to leave in half an hour to meet a client-become-friend for lunch; on the way home have to stop at Safeway and the credit union, meaning it will mid- to late-afternoon by the time I drag back in the door.
And…having just posted that LinkedIn article, I’m now running late for the luncheon appointment. So, away!