8-26-2016

Where I work has about 750, 000 square feet if office and warehouse space. I do most of their plumbing repairs and installs, along with a host of other general duties.

In a men's hallway restroom, an American Standard white porcelain sink cracked all the way through, so it needed to be replaced. That generation and model of sink is unavailable anymore, so we had to order a Briggs sink that was similar, but not made the same. The three hole replacement sink would receive the electronic Sloan faucet that was still usable.

 Over the years I have replaced many sinks, but exact replacements could still be ordered so the installs were very easy, even able to employ already mounted wall bracket holding the sink onto the wall.

The Briggs sink had a different, incompatible bracket, so everything needed reconfiguring to line up with the existing drain system, essential to prevent leaking. Measurements needed to be precise so that the new sink was mounted on a level bracket just the right height, and just the right distance from the wall to mate up with the trap, right on center.

My boss is a wizard at measurements, so I told him to mark the center of the bracket and I would do the install. He did. I did, and it fit perfectly.

It made me once again marvel at the skill and knowledge held and resorted to daily by journeyman and master plumbers, and talented measurers like my maintenance boss. These clever technicians repair, replace, install and do fresh plumbing fixture construction daily, without a hitch. They do their amazing magic all day long with fast, neat, attractive, durable results.

Those with college degrees that are feckless, unable to do or fix anything at home, with their hands. These educated snobs should not demean or dismiss those in the trades that work with their hands. The creativity, the ingenuity, the pleasure and sense of accomplishment in solving practical problems, the good humor with which they perform their duties with skill and excellence--these performances have never ceased to astound and impress me.

No wonder American plumbing is the best in the world.

My philosophy of moderation dictates that plumbers become individualists and intellectuals. In exchange, pink collar and white collar workers need to maverize, live as individuals, grow as real intellectuals not pseudo-intellectuals, and fix most of their domestic work at home with their hands.

Living and working well and wisely is comprised much of what Mavellonialist philosophy has to offer.

I finished the install, hooked up the sink, and caulked the new sink by early afternoon.

Right after that, the computer room across the hall, whose servers require a Liebert air conditioner to keep them cool, gave off so much condensate with gunk that plugs the sewer system which receives the waste water, plugged, overflowed and backed up onto the carpet in the hallway.

It was not 2 pm on a Friday afternoon, so leaving that plugged drain for the weekend was not an option. That Liebert gives off gallons of water, so it needed a drain that worked. Now I put on my Roto Rooter hat and snaked out the drain.

It was a day for plumbing and philosophizing, from a blue collar point of view.