New House Blog: Episode CCV - An Unexpected Journey

Recently we received an automated text from the local Texas water company, informing us that our water had been running continuously for 48 hours.  As this was a less-than-desirable situation, we called and asked for the water to be turned off to our Texas House, then we planned an unexpected trip for me to visit our Texas House to see what might be causing this excessive water runnage.

Unexpected Journey 1 - Background

A little background information may be useful here.  A couple of months ago, back in April, I think, we received word from the same water company that our water had been running continuously for about a month (something like 80,000 gallons, or what we would expect the two of us (and our four cats) to use in about 10 months).  They turned the water off at the meter, and before my road trip visit, chronicled in this Episode, we asked for the meter to be turned back on.  At that time we were informed that the gateway valve to our Texas House should be replaced, but we did not act on this at the time. 

A few weeks ago we decided to act on this information, so we called a local Texas plumbing company to get our gateway valve replaced.  Replace it they did.

This is the old, broken gateway valve.

This is the new, working gateway valve.

It was not long after this valve-replacement work that we received the automated text mentioned in the introduction to this Episode, which prompted the planning of the unexpected journey.









Unexpected Journey 2 - Taking Off

Things seemed to be going smoothly from the time I left our Old New House until the time I boarded my first flight on my unexpected journey to our Texas House.  The plane pushed back from the ramp, and then it sat, and sat, and sat.  For over an hour we sat and sat and sat.  Every now and then the pilot would update us with information such as, "Well folks, as we pushed back the ground crew noticed a broken landing gear lock pin, so we're not going anywhere yet," and, "Well, folks, we're waiting for the maintenance crew to arrive and repair things," and, "Well, folks, the maintenance crew is here, and we should be ready to go in about 10 more minutes."

The pilot's time estimates were always optimistic and innaccurate.  The blue dot at left is approximately where we waited for over an hour.  Did I mention that this sitting and sitting and sitting was seriously cutting into my layover time at LAX? 

We eventually took off, and it all worked out.  As it turns out, my next flight, to Texas, was flying out of the same gate as my flight from San Jose International Airport, it was on the same exact airplane, with the same flight crew, and I sat in the same exact seat!






Unexpected Journey 3  Flight Sights

I took some photos from the plane (seat 19A) as we flew into and out of the Los Angeles area.

This is a Norwegian Air 787 coming in for a parallel landing.  The 787 is a beautiful airplane.

The same Norwegian Air 787 as we make our final approaches into LAX.

This is just a random ship near LAX after we took off for Texas.

That is the Queen Mary in the center of the picture at right.  The big, white dome used to house Howard Hughes' Hercules.









Unexpected Journey 4 - Interlude

I arrived at our Texas House late at night and turned on the water at the new gateway valve.  All seemed to be in order, and throughout my stay I did not detect any leaks or unexpected running water.  Shutting off the water, then turning it on again seems to have fixed the issue.  We suspect the culprit may have been a running toilet.

While staying in our Texas House I got to experience a very nice thunderstorm.  It had the wind, the rain, the lightning, the thunder, the total awesomeness of thunderstorms that we do not get at our West Coast House.

Unexpected Journey 5 - Critters

Although I did not find any water leaks or obvious causes of excess runnage, I did find some critters around our Texas House.

First off is this friendly lizard.  I'll admit that I'm not 100% sure this is at our Texas House, but I did see it and take the picture somewheres, and it could be at our Texas House.

This friendly lizard was definitely at our Texas House.

I think these mousies are friendly.

But they get into everything!

That, friends (or whoever is reading this), is a Texas Redheaded Centipede (scolopendra heros), also known as the Giant Desert Centipede, Giant Sonoran Centipede, and Giant Redheaded Centipede.  This fellow would probably be about 5" long if I had stretched him out (I didn't), and they can apparently grow up to 8" long.  How he got into the house, and into that particular room, I don't know, but I did put out a fresh glue trap.

Unexpected Journey 6 - Back Yard

Here are a couple of random pictures of the back yard of our Texas House.

Just some random cactus.

I suspect that water runs down this rocky area after heavy rains.












Unexpected 7 - Return

Flying back to San Jose International Airport was smooth and uneventful.  There were no delays, and all flights were on time.  At my layover in Salt Lake City I noticed that they seem to be building a new airport right on top of the existing airport.

Unexpected 8 - Finale

All in all it was a pleasant trip.  I got to ride in airplanes, I got to sleep on the floor, I experienced an awesome thunderstorm, I got to use the microwave and fridge, I found a huge centipede, I got to visit Buc-ee's twice, and I got to replace the three air filters that were first mentioned in this Episode.  I did not, however, get to go on a road trip, so I'll finish this Episode with some unused pictures from my road trip that was chronicled in this Episode.

This is at a rest stop somewheres in Texas.  Note that all of the parking is parallel parking.

This is also somewheres in Texas.  Note the sign in the lower right of the picture.











So far, no more calls from the Texas water
    bIsh