Down & Dirty

An interesting day today.  I got some good stuff done and in doing so was able to see a parallel or two between what I was doing and my life.  Maybe some of you will be able to relate.

Today I got down and dirty.  I used to do it a lot back in the day, but nowadays with the combination of age and some physical limitations I just don't do it so often any more.  I always thought it was kind of fun getting all down and dirty.  It kind of fit my style....and taste.

You see, we decided that it was time to get a new toilet in one of the bathrooms.  That decision was helped along by the fact that twice in quick succession the wax ring underneath (that thing that keeps your floors from getting flooded by the stuff released by the flush) gave way two times in pretty rapid succession...and obviously the 2nd of those was a newly installed ring.  We had a graphic symptom of a deeper issue, and that was verified by the plumber who came to visit...we needed some new piping underneath the toilet...the one the toilet connects to.

The plumber got the old toilet out (can I say yucky please?) and then came the good news.  They can put the new toilet in, but that old nasty flooring down and around the newly replaced pipe had to go.  My job ! Down and dirty.  So today it was out with the old, and in with the new.....with a few curve balls...literally.  You see, nothing in a very old house is too close to being square.  Down & dirty.  Ripping fully abused carpeting, on top of fully abused tile, on top of fully abused subflooring,,,,all I can say is YECH !!  No problem, Captain Nemo.  A trip or two (or maybe three, to be normal) and a time span of a couple of hours bonding with an assortment of tools, and wow !.....a new floor that looks unreal.  Down and dirty was worth it.

I've known a few people, myself included, who were like this job.  I had a life that just couldn't stay on track, no matter what was tried. Then one day this people plumber (He was called the Holy Spirit), came to work on me and ripped the old me out of me and tossed it away.  And that's when I found out that I had to get down and dirty and get rid of all those layers of crud I had allowed to build up within me so that the new me would not only look and be nice, but would work well. 

I'm just a bit different than the toilet project just finished.  It looks nice and will function well.  It's just a floor and a toilet, and all the down and dirty work is finished.  I'm not sure at all that the down and dirty work that needs to get done within me will ever get done.....but that's just the nature of the beast....after all I'm human, and a broken one at that.

How about you?  Do you still have some down and dirty business to take care of?  If so....what's stopping you>