tool-using Tuesday

in which our plucky heroine is grateful for fearless tinkering, access to tools and hardware, and adds yet another Useful Gizmo to the Acorn Cottage Arsenal...

Last night my relatively new hand held shower head: the one that can be turned on and off while in use, (thereby saving gallons of water with every shower*) developed an alarming sudden ability to spew a spout of water out the switch, which decorated the entire bathroom with excessive enthusiasm. Not appropriate! Cut my ablutions short, and cleaned up the puddles.

At first, it was not at all apparent how to get inside the shower head, which seemed to be solid molded plastic. Then it occurred to me that there might be a reason why the ends of the on/off buttons were faceted rather than rounded; some gentle twisting and the on/off buttons were discovered to be two halves of a single bar, supposedly furnished with two O-rings... One of said O-rings was somehow missing a large-ish chunk, which explained the spraying water everywhere scenario.

Fortunately, a trip to the hardware store was able to supply a suitable replacement O-ring, and on re-assembly, the showerhead works quite well again. It wasn't certain that would be the case, since the dimensions of the little O-ring were not exactly the same thickness, but the I/D and O/D were correct, so it was worth a 40¢ investment. Will get a few more to keep (labeled with function) in the bathroom cupboard in case of future necessity.

Whilst at the hardware store, I once again ogled the fruit picking gizmo that has been on my wishlist for several years; was up high on one wall, and the price was not visible. Decided to just go ahead and ask, after all, the common wisdom of "if you have to ask, you can't afford it" is not always true... shure 'nuff to my surprise, it was only $15 for the entire shebang! coated fruit-picking basket and a two piece wooden pole, with steel attachment sleeve to attach the whole thing together, adding an 8ft reach into the sky, for gathering foodstuffs. Huzzah!

My intent is to use this immediately, for picking some of the green walnuts from the tree in the alley. Have long been reading about nocino/liqueur de noix, a green walnut liqueur, made by steeping the unripe nuts in alcohol. Will be an interesting experiment. The fruit picker will come in handy for other fruits later in the year as well, it seems to me to be a good idea to acquire Useful Tools as life and the budget allows.