Today is the Winter Solstice here in Topeka as it in most of the United States. It is 11:30 pm here, so if you leave in the Eastern Time Zone, it isn’t officially until 12:30 am tomorrow morning.

It snowed for the first time here in Topeka last night. Hardly any at all, but it still qualifies as snow. The pan handle of Oklahoma and Texas got whacked with a dumping of snow.

Yesterday it rained most of the day. I’ve actually ridden inside for two days in a row. Amazing. I went by an old house I own yesterday to get something out of the van over there and heard a weird noise coming from inside. I went inside and the PVC pipe connected to the sump pump had broken and it was flooded, with the sump pump spraying water all over the basement.

The water was about a foot deep. So I went around town to collect the proper tools to fix the problem. I went over to the building that I’d roofed a couple years ago and decided to check on the sump pumps in the basement there. It wasn’t flooded, but one of the sump pumps wasn’t even connected. Turns out it was clogged up with something a month ago and my brother disconnected it and fixed it, but never reinstalled it. So, I went back to the house and did a make shift fix of connnecting some PVC together and sticking it out the basement window.

It amazed me how long it took to pump all the water out. I bet it thrilled the neighbors having a pond between our yards. It is partially their fault. They bought 15 feet of land from the people that used to own my house and they regraded that part, so there is a low spot between the houses that doesn’t drain. I really need to address the issue on a major basis sometime, but not now.

I can’t believe how zapped I got from standing around in cold water for such a short time. It was mainly my feet and hands, as usually. I had on waterproof boots and two pairs of Smartwool socks, but that didn’t do it. I feel like I got ran over by a truck today. No wonder we all get so beat from racing cross in the winter when it is wet. It doesn’t seem to affect the Belgium guys like that so much. They are like the energizer bunnies, especially over the holidays, racing nearly everyday. I don’t get it.

It is going to be in the mid 40’s today and sunny here, so I’m riding outside again.

I'm a little lucky I went by the house. I don't go by that often. It would have been a different job if the pump was submerged.

The water was pretty cold and deep.

This was after only half the water was pumped out.

The house is great. Really old, with 6 inch tongue and groove floors. The bathroom was an addition on the back, since there wasn’t any indoor plumbing when it was built.

I don’t know why it seems that I have no extra time any more. Or any time at all. It’s not like I’m messing around on the computer or watching TV for hours. But that is how it is now.

Yesterday was a prime example. I went for a semi long winter ride at 3 1/2 hours. That ride really takes closer to 5 hours by the time you add in getting dressed, undressed, showered, etc. So that was a big chunk of the day. But I had another 11 hours, at least, of time left and it doesn’t seem that I got 11 hours worth of stuff done.

I spent a little over an hour hauling leaves. A couple weeks ago we’d raked the leaves into a big pile in the front and still needed to move them to the back compost pile. The leaves were wet, thus heavy. Kind of did a number on my already sore hamstrings.

I spent last night weighing and gluing tires. There was a pretty wide weight difference between all the FMB tires. Not huge, but 50 grams from the lightest to the heaviest. Same with the Dugast. The FMB’s mostly weighed in around 435 grams, which is alright considering. I have some 34mm Dugast tires that actually measure under 33 most of the way around. The way the UCI officials jam that measuring devise over the tires I’m sure they would be okay, but you never know. The difference in volume between tires that are just 2 mm in diameter is much greater than the 6 % width difference. The volume has to be closer to 10 %. I’m not exactly sure if that applies directly to pressure, but it is probably close.

Okay. I’m driving to Chicago tomorrow morning for Christmas with Trudi’s family. I have to make a small detour up by Crystal Lake, Ill. to pick up a hot water heater that I bought a month ago. My water heater has been oozing water for more than a couple months now. I ended not getting hot water on demand and just a standard water heater. It is kind of high rent with a few extra bells and whistles, whatever that means for a water heater. New it would be close to $800. I bought it on eBay for $117. It was purchased for new construction, but the home owner wanted a 75 gallon hot water heater instead of a 50. Must of had a jacuzzi bath tub or something I’d guess.

So there is going to be a bunch of standing today and then sitting tomorrow. Not a good happy medium for my hamstrings.

I took over the kitchen table with my tire weighing project last night.

I didn't mulch the leaves this year, so they over filled the compost area.

In the photo above, this is the tree house my neighbors to the rear build last year for their grandchildren. It is pretty great, it connects to their house.

End of my water heater's life. I probably could have saved it if I would have noticed the issues sooner.