I Love Gardening and My Pets!

I didn’t think I would need divine intervention to replace a bathroom sink faucet. Instructions found on the internet suggested that even someone with less than average intelligence could do the job in 30 minutes. With my plumbing expertise I did the job in five hours; with some help from God.

Reading the instructions and the first item on the list, I was advised to cut the water off at the shut-off valves under the sink. Tackling the cold water valve first, I tried as hard as I could to twist it with my hand. That didn’t work, so I used my channel lock pliers on the handle.

Squeezing the pliers hard, I put a lot of muscle into the twisting of the handle on the cold water valve and crushed it into a mangled mess that fell to the floor of the cabinet. Water spurted out of the stem, drenching me in a cold shower!

Dashing outside to the meter, I quickly shut off the water to the house. Back in the bathroom and the mangled shut-off valve, I tried the hot water and there were no leaks. I would only have to buy one and I could get the project underway again.

The super indoor lumber yard and hardware store was five miles away. After finding the items I needed I drove back home and replaced the shut-off valve. Now I could finally take off the old sink faucet and exchange it for the new one.

Taking the old faucet off the lavatory wasn’t really difficult and I had it off in 30 minutes. I also had skinned knuckles because the wrench I was using slipped off the brass fittings twice, causing me to accidentally rake my hands on the rough underside of the sink.

Now, only three hours after I began this task, it was time to replace the old bathroom sink faucet with the new one that was still in the plastic bag.

The next steps were easy. Tearing something apart is usually a lot easier than putting it back together again. This was the case with the new faucet. For some reason the ‘P’ Trap fell apart when I disconnected it from the drain pipe in the sink.

Try as I might, I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Finally it made a lot more sense to run back to the hardware store again and buy a new ‘P’ Trap. When I got back home and installed the fixture, everything worked perfectly.

After installing the new faucet and connecting the water supply lines to the sink faucet, I removed the aerator as advised by the now water soaked set of instructions. Turning on the water from the road, I heard a hissing noise before I got to the bathroom.

This time I turned off the water at the sink.. Instead of a drip, there had been a flood coming from the faucet itself, a place where it was impossible to leak. Since it wasn’t dripping with the water off, I gave up and went to bed, soaked and tired from the day’s effort.

Being the praying man I am, before I went to sleep I asked God to fix the leaky faucet for me while I slept. If he didn’t want to do that, He could at least send me someone who was smarter than I to show me what to do.

The next morning when I turned the water on in the sink, water blasted from the top of the sink again. My wife heard the commotion and walked into the bathroom. After turning the water off, she held out her hand and showed me the aerator I had taking off the faucet saying, “I don’t know for sure, but this might help.”

Mumbling that no one told me to put the attachment back on, I crawled out from under the sink, screwed it onto the faucet. No leak!

God does have a sense of humor.

Bob Alexander is a son of the south. He has gained expert status in eating barbeque, telling fishing stories and leisure living.
Visit his site at: http://www.redfishbob.com

Ever wonder what makes a cow do what a cow does?  She slowly moves along, munching on grass, seemingly without any particular goal in mind.  Then suddenly she sees a juicy morsel on the other side of the fence.  What does she do? 

 If the gate is open she walks on through and continues to eat!  If it’s closed she sticks her head through any opening possible and eats the grass on the other side.  After all, the grass is always greener…and it just has to taste better!

This is a true story of the miracle of the wandering cows.  It’s not documented by the Catholic Church, but it is definitely a tale of divine intervention.  I believe that God showers us with miracles every day, but unless they’re covered by the six o’clock news, we rarely hear about them.  The following event is a no-brainer; this was definitely a miracle from God!

 My friend Carol and her family built their home many years ago just outside our town.  Due to progress spurred on by the space industry, our town has grown larger than any of our founding fathers could have imagined.  Land that was in the country thirty years ago is now in the city.

Their house and their neighbor’s house and pasture is now surrounded by roads and highways.  Their pastures are home to a few cattle, a couple of goats and a donkey which roam the field munching on grass.  There is always the fear that someone will forget to shut the gate and the animals will wander onto the road and be struck by a car.

One rainy afternoon her neighbors were out of town and it was her duty to feed the animals.  There were only a half dozen cows, but they still had to be herded to the barn and fed grain.  Slipping and sliding through the mud, Carol wondered again why cows were so stupid that they wouldn’t get out of the rain and into a nice warm barn.  Finally, they were fed and they began to drift back out into the pasture munching wet grass as they walked over the wet grass.

As Carol came to the pasture gate with the cows slowly following her, her cell phone rang.  Her husband told her of an emergency involving another friend who had to be rushed to the hospital.  She opened and shut the gate and ran to her house to change out of the muddy clothes.  All this took only a few precious minutes and then they were hurrying to the local hospital some thirty minutes away.

For those who have been unfortunate enough to have visited any emergency room in this country, you know that it is a law that you have to spend at least two hours in the waiting room before you’re called into the actual emergency room.  Then it’s another two hours before a real doctor sees you. 

Thankfully the friend was treated and was able to go home after four hours.  Carol decided to stop by the neighbor’s house to make sure everything was in order.  As they drove into the driveway, she gasped as she saw the open gate to the pasture.  In her hurry, she had forgotten to put the pin in the latch to keep the gate shut! 

Every one of those cows was happily munching on the spring grass inside the fence!  One, two, three four, five and six!  They were all there!  Not a one had ventured through the opening into the yard and ultimately onto the road just a few yards away!

Nothing is more tempting to a cow than a chance to wander through an open gate.  Upon seeing such an opening, her mouth starts watering and visions of new tastier morsels of sweet young grass start dancing in her head.  When six cows are wandering around the pasture, the odds are that one of them will be marching through that opening to the world outside the pasture!

This was a miracle paramount to the parting of the waters!  For four hours God had prevented the cows from walking through the open gate!  This is a miracle of epic proportions.  Was God protecting the cows or my friend Carol from having to shoulder the blame for having left the gate open?  I believe though, that it’s just an example of God’s love.  There are miracles every day for all of us if we just look for them!