Our chimney is leaking.

It’s not raining now, but when it’s raining, it leaks some.

That’s a drag….when I’m home and it’s light outside and I’m thinking about the problem, it’s raining and too wet to get up on the roof.

When it’s dry, we’re doing other things. It’s not on my mind as much when the water isn’t coming into the house.

How’s that for an excuse?

I have a customer on the route who does chimney sweeping….and he can get us a new cap that covers the whole top of the chimney with an overhang….so that should fix it.

I just need to get up there and measure and cut the flue liner down some with my grinder and a good diamond disc.

All this stuff that gets pushed to the back when the problem isn’t life threatening…I need to just get on it.

My car had been making a bad noise for a while….a mysterious roaring kind of noise….no, more subtle than roaring…a complaining kind of sound…..whining…no…maybe roaring is the best word.

Anyway, it had made this sound for a while….but over the weekend, I found a broken exhaust clamp at the end of the exhaust pipe and when I repaired that, the roaring went away.

I guess it was just stuff vibrating weird that was making the sound.

It was easy to fix….cheap (3.49 for the clamp) and the car is a lot quieter after the five-minute repair.

Funny….I’d mentioned the sound to a couple of mechanics and they had a lot more invasive potentials….u-joints or carrier bearings….”probably not the rear end”…etc. ….but nobody wiggled the tail pipe until I did.

The old clamp was still on there….and, maybe, that was the problem.

If it was missing completely, someone might have noticed….but people don’t look at things that look complete.

The old Jeep feels….solid….again.

Appearances….if you can’t tell that it’s broken, why bother with it?

I’ve got to get up on the roof….measure….cut….cover up again.

Dry this old house up.

As far as the post office goes, yesterday went like I supposed it would.

We run our tails off, handling the load, but when we get back, we get in trouble for taking too long.

Overtime.

Don’t give it to me if you think that I don’t deserve it.

I work hard.

Just don’t ride me during this Christmas season….take away whatever you want……just don’t ride me about things I can’t control.

Rat bastards. (That’s too strong….management is a better, kinder word.)

Nothing is cast in stone….the world is full of good potential….and, at the end of the day, we figure out a way to make it through the next day.

(My job is good….independant and steady…dependable. You can’t say that about many jobs these days. As much as people talk about how the USPS is going down, it’s a consistently boring juggernaut….for now….that pays the bills. I’ve got no room for complaints, really….)

That car and the chimney will be easy to fix.

I’ll bet that “right livelihood” wouldn’t be so hard to get to, either.

Is the USPS “right livelihood”?

For anyone?

I already know the answer to that question.

I need to fix things.