The Human Brain

The human brain is such an amazing organ.

I just turned 60 years old. As a young man during the Vietnam war era I smoked my share of pot and then some. For much of my adult life I drank a little more alcohol than what was good for me. So it would be normal to think that my brain would be on the declining side of the curve. And I am sure that it is!

When I was about 9 or 10 my dad and I experimented with thermocouples. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermocouple Now it is fifty years later. Lots of images and subjects have been stored in my tired old brain since then.

This morning when I went to wash my glasses prior to taking a shower I realized that the hot water was barely warm. I spent the next hour or so trying to get the hot water heater to stay lit. I took much of it apart, cleaned it, etc. But the gas heater still would not remain lit.

In diagnosing it everything seemed to point to the thermocouple. Thermocouples in 2009 look just exactly like they did fifty years ago. So I went to the plumbing supply store. For about $500- I could buy a new hot water heater. It would probably take me at least half a day or longer to install it, but doing it myself would no doubt save me at least another $500- not spent with the plumber. For a little less than $11- I could buy a universal thermocouple. So I decided to try this first.

I got home, installed it, and the hot water heater is back working perfectly. So today I saved myself enough to pay for that new Nikon lens I bought last week. If you include the labor of not calling a plumber I could have bought two of them.

All because of something I learned from my father fifty years ago. Amazing.
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