Work today, ride tomorrow

We have had a rainy, rainy week, so no riding for us.  It's probably just as well.  What Tony thought was a pulled muscle, ended up being an infection.  He was in quite a bit of pain, finally gave in, and went to see our family Dr.  She put him on an antibiotic.  That in itself is a scary thing.  Tony doesn't do well on antibiotics, or any other pharmaceutical drug, which is a big reason why we choose to do natural medicine as much as we can.  Tony had already been on a variety of natural things for 3 weeks, so reluctantly, he agreed to take the prescription meds our  Dr. recommended.   When he got on the scale, he was happy to see that he had gained 4 pounds.  Not sure if it was from the shakes he has been drinking or from inactivity.  I hope that he can hold onto the weight he gained.

He is now on day 3 and feeling better. In fact, as I write this, he is downstairs, lifting weights.  That is a sure sign he is on the road to recovery.

Meanwhile, I have been trying to get our reverse osmosis  (RO) water system working properly.  We had some problems with a leak at the base of the faucet earlier this summer. Ended up with a flood twice.

 Called a plumber, the guy that came was puzzled by it, after working on it for about and hour, he admitted he wasn't sure if it was fixed or not, and that he really wasn't a plumber.  Hmm..the place I called was called "Mr. Plumber," and I asked for a plumber.  Why did they send me this guy?  Since he wasn't sure he fixed it, (I think he was pretty sure he hadn't fixed it, he knew very little about RO systems.) he didn't bill us for his time.  The leak returned in 2 days.

A week later our daughter, son in law and family were visiting.  Our son in law finally managed to track the problem down.  It was an issue that had to do with where the system drained. He got it resolved, no more leaks.  I was happy.

After we returned from our trip to WA, the leak returned as well.  Since then I have had the cold water in the kitchen shut off.  I did some reading about our system and decided that what might be causing the problem was the fact that the membrane and 2 filters likely needed replacing.  Drove 30 miles to a store that had them in stock, came home and proceeded to change them.  They are are quick twist filters, so fairly easy to do, except, I couldn't get the hose out of the membrane.  I called the store, they offered a few suggestions, but it still wouldn't budge.  Tony finally called a friend of ours who came over and showed me how to get it off.  It was a challenge that involved 2 needle nose pliers.  One to push down some little thing that holds the hose in, and the other to pull the hose out with.  Of course the hose isn't even mentioned in the instruction manual or on the DVD that came with the system.

New membrane and filters in, now to purge and pressurize the system.

 Back to the manual, pretty easy to follow instructions.  Get the water out of the line by turning on the kitchen faucet, then shut it off and the  RO tank will begin to fill with water.  It started out making a noise that sounded like the end cycle of a pot of coffee brewing.  I shut it off, and did it all over again, same thing.  Well, I guess that must be what it sounds like when it is pressurizing.  The pressurizing time was 2 hours.  After an hour of hearing the "coffee brewing," I gave in an made a pot of decaf.  It was now 8:30 PM.  At  9PM, I turned the RO faucet on.  The instructions said to leave the faucet on for 24 hours.  The brewing noise continued, but hey, at least I had a cup of coffee, so life wasn't all bad.

After 20 minutes the stream of water stopped and I noticed that the leak at the top of the faucet had returned.  With a sigh, I turned the cold water back off, and decided to work on it tomorrow, which is now today.   As long as I was by the sink, I put my coffee cup in the dishwasher.

Temps today will be in the 50's and it is  still windy, probably not the best day to ride anyway.  The colors are beautiful.  Hoping to get out tomorrow and take some pics.

Yesterday it was so windy along the lake shore in Chicago that they had to close the bike trail on lake shore drive down. Huge waves were knocking cyclist and runners down.  There are several video on the link.

http://www.nbcchicago.com/video/#!/news/local/Huge-Waves-Knock-Down-LSD-Bikers--Runners/130845438

However, today there is some sun in Michigan.  Tomorrow is supposed to be in the 60's and sunny, so after church, we'll come home, and take a little picnic lunch and a color tour ride.

I spent most of the day trying figure out the RO system leak.  Started off by checking the pressure in the tank.  It was a 7 pounds, just like it should be.

 Pretty sure  the leak  had to do with the drain line.  After much effort, I finally got the drain line loose from the drain.   It was dirty.  In order to flush it out, I needed to remove it from the faucet,but of course, I couldn't get it loose.  Nothing in the instructions telling me how to do it.  I called a friend of ours to see if he might know how to get  it loose, and he offered to come and help me.   I took him up on the offer immediately. He and I spent all afternoon working on it.  We got the line loose, cleaned it out, and reassembled the stuff that goes inside the faucet.  It still leaked.  Took it apart again, and changed the O rings, still leaking.  Took it apart again, trimmed each hose just a little incase they weren't fitting just right.  It is still leaking.   Added a washer, so the screw holding it all together would fit better,  still leaking.  He, Tony and I,  had some good laughs while we worked on it, but it is still leaking.

  RO system is under a 3 year warranty, there is obviously something wrong inside the faucet housing.  I will call the company on Monday.   I want no more leaking.  I also want to be able to have the cold water turned on in the kitchen.


 I would have rather been riding.   Oh yeah, the fleas the dog got while we were on vacation, laid some eggs before they died , a new generation has arrived to do battle with.

 Yep, I'll be glad to get out and ride tomorrow.