Day 168 of 365

Getting wet

Sometimes machines just wear out. We can't expect anything mechanical to last forever, ourselves included. We do have to take care and perform maintenance if we expect to get the best from anything.

On the 168th day of personal firsts I got wet repairing a water softener and it wasn’t my own.

Most of the Kennedy kids are mechanical by nature, I include myself in this statement. These skills definitely come from my father and he has never failed to be a teacher when we lacked the necessary abilities. He knows so much about so many things.

The task today was to make water flow. I’ve never taken a water softener apart and I was surprised to discover there are so many parts involved.

When water wasn’t flowing, troubleshooting started from the end of the line and worked backwards. The space where it's setup is pretty tight and the problem was difficult to see. A few screw turns, selfie camera angles and some wrenching and the culprit was discovered. The entire house water supply runs through this machine. In order to flush out the softener the salty brine has to pass through a filter that's reduced by a plastic nipple the diameter of a paper clip.

A PAPER CLIP!

Once the problem piece was discovered, and poked with that paper clip, water started to flow and that briny mixture was doing its job again. I'll admit my hands were mostly helping but I learned a lot about the mechanics of this water system. I got wet and a little bit sludgy but the end result was a fix... for now. I see a replacement in my future.

Day 168 was educational.

Love & Light