Plumber

I was at work when my wife sent me an email with the title, "Water Leak?".

Not the kind of title I want to see. But she's at work also; maybe it's in her building.

No. It's at my house. Apparently my neighbor left a note on our door that there was a leak at the curb, and they shut off our water. I left work at 3, and headed home. The leak was where the PVC pipe went into the water meter.

"Easy enough," I thought.

All I need to do is cut the pipe back a little, and I can replace it. I dig out the pipe a little, and it may be harder than I think. And my fear is I'll cut it back, and break the pipe, and end up costing a lot of money. I call one company that I have given a lot of business to, and have been pretty impressed. But they can't get out until the next morning. No water all night? No. So I call another company.

They send someone as soon as they are done with a job. In less than an hour, someone shows up, looks at it, and writes up an estimate.

$520.

Excuse me? It's PVC pipe.

"I can do this," I think (again).

So I start back to work. I cut the pipe off, and part of it broke off in the fitting in the meter. I headed to Lowe's to get the fittings, and an extractor to get the piece out. After several minutes, I find some pieces that should work. Back at the house, I start digging back. I couldn't get the piece out of the meter fitting. The pipe comes out of the the meter, and immediately goes into the sprinkler system, which we don't have anymore. Then it went straight down. Okay, so this is going to be a lot more involved than I thought.

I called a friend who does his own construction work, and found out he doesn't do plumbing. His uncle does all of his work. So I called him at 6:00.

"Do you want me to come over now, or can it wait until the morning?" he asked.

"Well, I have no water, so if you could come over now, that would be great."

He was there in twenty minutes. Within an hour, he was done, and the yard was put back together. We had water, and no leak.

"How much do I owe you?" I asked.

"Seventy Five."

I wrote him a check for one hundred and twenty five.

Here's a guy who dropped what he was doing to come get me out of my problem. He may have been finishing dinner, or just sitting down to relax. He worked in the 100+ degree heat to fix it. The job was done right, and he barely charged enough to make it worth his time.

Anyone who needs plumbing work done, his name is Ben Stevenson, owner of Stevenson Services. He does excellent work, and more reasonably than just about anyone else.

Batman...Really?

Sitting down in front of the TV for the Cowboys vs. Bengals, I was more than ready to get the season started.

Before the game started, Andrea Kremer was talking to Terrell Owens and Chad Ochocinco. Cincinnati isn't the best team in the league, but Ochocinco has proven to be a pretty decent receiver. Owens was signed to a one-year, two million dollar deal. To most of us, two million dollars is nothing to scoff at. To someone who thinks he's the greatest receiver ever, that's chump change.

And yet, in the pre-game interview, Andrea asked how having too great receivers was going to work. Owens stuck his face out, and said, "I'm Batman..." He was obviously waiting for Ochocinco to follow up with, "I'm Robin." He did, and I couldn't help but think, "You get signed to a team that already has a good receiver, and you start out by telling the world that you are the number one receiver there? That the other guy is your sidekick?"

Wow. Nice to see Owens hasn't let the fact that almost no one wanted to sign him take away his...umm....confidence? No, let's just call it what it is. Arrogance.

Owens has moments of greatness. But he has one job. And when you are making millions of dollars a year to do one thing, you'd better be the best. Last night, I watched him do a simple post, and the ball hit him in the hands. Even when you're making a paltry two million a year, you can't drop passes like that.

It's also nice to see he hasn't lost his abilities.

Don't get me wrong. I don't hate Owens. But I got tired of watching him rant against the quarterback because he wasn't given a pass here and there. Then, he would drop two or three that hit him right in the chest.

And what ever happened to being thankful to be playing? Watching some of the speeches from the Hall-of-Fame inductees was refreshing. Here were people who played because they loved the game. One had waited thirty years to be inducted. And there was no (apparent) bitterness. He was thankful to be there. Most of those I saw gave credit to their teammates and coaches for the opportunities.

Emmett Smith cried when he thanked Daryl Johnston for blocking for him so many years, allowing him to make the runs he made. Now there's a class act.