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"Life doesn't have to be perfect to be wonderful."
- Unknown

"That which does not kill you, makes you stronger."
- Handed down through the ages.

"Life's tough. It's even tougher when you're stupid."
- John Wayne



The Continuation of September: The Good Month

So, back to where I'd left off - the Thermopex. To recap, we had to somehow coax the non-bending 4" Thermopex through two 6" draintiles. One run was short and rather straight - from the Central Boiler (which will be on the east side of the garage) underneath the garage slab to come up in the west side of the garage in the battery/utility room of same said garage. The only trick was making the more-than-90-degree angle up through the slab and into the room.
But, as we'd expected, once we skinned off the thick sleeve and insulating membrane of the Thermopex down to the two water tubes, the corner was made with only minor difficulties (just a lot of pushing and pulling and straining on our parts).
Next was the longer stretch from 6 feet down under the west side of the garage (which Tom had to dig down through roots and rocks to get to), through an S-curve, underneath and along the west side of the garage, through another S-curve and then finally a straight shot under the width of the garage until it came out - also by the Central Boiler. This is the line that will run into the house (the rest of it will be buried in a trench).
After we'd finished that first short section we attempted this next, longer one but VERY QUICKLY realized that brute force (Tom pushing and me pulling on the rope attached to it that we'd already strung through the draintile) was not gonna do it. Neither did the dishsoap we squirted on it to make it more . . . accepting . . . of the tight squeeze.
So, a week ago today was the big day. Oh, that's right - we had breakfast with friends, then headed up. Well, maybe I should admit that we took Tom's new double sleeping bag down to the house slab, lay down, listened to the trees and the birds, and then took a nice nap in the sun! But THEN we got to it!
We undid the rope we'd so carefully drilled through the end of the Thermopex and replaced it with steel cable. To that we attached a larger, 1/2" steel cable which was, in turn, hooked to a 2-ton winch. Tom was on shoving and lube duty (again, the dishsoap) 6 feet in a hole on the west side of the garage, and I was on the winch on the east side of the garage. The wench was on the winch?! Slow, painful, back-breaking progress and THREE HOURS LATER, we had it through! When I saw that end finally come through I felt like I'd given birth! We were SO worried that the tension on the cable - and therefore also the Thermopex - would cause the attached cable to rip the end out of the tubing, but it held . . . thankfully. And, that's exactly why we took it nice and slow.
That was a job that I think we'd unconsciously been putting off (and is it any wonder?!), and now it feels so good to have it done!

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