I have a busy day tomorrow with an appointment early in the morning and a meeting in the evening. In between, Peggy and Barb (Elliott) are coming over for lunch and a visit. I would have cleaned anyway but we heard early today that Pat’s friends from his Fort Smith days are arriving Sunday to spend a week with us. When I heard that I cleaned a little extra – I’ll get both guest rooms ready and they can have their pick.

It looked a bit like rain but I hung a load of washing on the line; I thought that would bring on the rain for sure. Although it stayed cloudy and cool all day no rain fell. Pat thought it was too cold for lunch on the deck but I ate outside and, in fact, I’m out on the back deck as I write this.

I thought this morning I’d be calling a plumber. The seat on the toilet had come unhinged but I was pretty sure I could fix it. I saw immediately what the problem was; the piece that holds the seat and lid together had pushed all the way through and wasn’t holding them in place. I thought I could push it further out from the other end but realized there were two separate pieces. Okay, I can fix that.

In my attempt to get the piece far enough out to attach, I heard it drop and I was sure from the noise it made that it had hit porcelain. So now I had to take out the screws that attach the seat and lid to the base so I could get at the part that dropped. Okay, it will be easier now with it all apart.

When I got the missing piece out I could see what the problem was. There is a gizmo that keeps that part from going in too far and on the one side that piece was stretched and not holding. I tried every which way but the right way to get everything reattached and finally went to the Internet to see if it could help me. It didn’t but I found out where I could get a replacement seat and cover; I already knew how to attach it to the base.

Did I mention that Pat was out while all this drama was going on? I decided to wait until he got home before going out for the new seat. He looked at the problem, put the little attachment in from the opposite direction I was using and now everything is back together and working. Should it happen again – I can fix that!