[Leica] Broken Toilet (longish)

["William Gower" <wgower@eco-tec.com>]

Funny thing happened on my way to the Home Depot this weekend. 

My fiancée is away on business in Chicago over the weekend. Prior to her
departure, she "reminded" me to fix the toilet, as it has been broken for
the last week, and I haven't had time (or the desire) to take a look at it.
I figure if the toilet still flushes, then it's still ok. The continual
sound of running water can't be a bad thing. Hell, I tell her, in most men's
bathrooms, urinals run all the time....

I dread pluming, (and home maintenance in general). And a broken toilet = no
fun-filled bachelor weekend for me. But what the hell, I'll do it Sunday.
The hardware store is open on Sunday, right ? And it's such a nice day
outside...

So Saturday I do all the fun stuff - taking snaps, camera shops, a nice nap.
Order a pizza, rent a few movies...

Sunday morning (5:45am) I woke up to the sound of running water and 1/2" of
water in my bathroom. Broken toilet. Water EVERYWHERE....

(SOUND OF FRANTIC MAN RUNNING FOR THE SHOP-VAC).

I get the water shut off, suck the water up with the Shop-Vac. (This is
actually a blessing, since I can now justify the Shop-Vac's existence as
legitimate, even though it started life as one of those "spontaneous"
purchases. The old "on sale" excuse wasn't a good enough reason to bring it
into the house.)

How in the hell do you fix a toilet anyway ?

Of course, my embarrassing excuse of a "toolbox" does not yield the proper
part. I don't even have the proper tools. Why I even bothered to look in my
toolbox in the first place is a bigger mystery than, (as I peer into the
box) why I continue to buy the same damn screwdriver every time I enter a
hardware store.

...and why is it that these things always seem to happen on SUNDAYS ?

Great, ok, it's 6:25 am, and:

1. Have a broken toilet

2. I have no tools and/or parts to fix the damn thing.

3. I have to pee REALLY bad.

I Flip through the phone book. There's a 24 hour Home Depot across town.
Great. Throw on some jeans, run a brush through my hair, jump in the car,
off I go.

But I still have to go. And a coffee would be good too.

Halfway across town I spot a coffee shop. Use the facilities, grab a coffee.
And spot a antique flea-market about three parking lots over. The people are
just finishing setting up and a few people are starting to mill about. I
wander over.

Mostly furniture, with some records, china and...to my amazement, a single
vendor with cameras. I look at his table...a few old Kodak folding cameras,
some junk, a few old Olympus and Cannon fixed lens rangefinders, and,
amongst some misc. clutter, my eye catches 4 B+W E39 filters.

"How much for the filters ?" 50$ for the 4. I offer him $40, then settle on
$45. Considering I just paid over $50 for a new B+W UV (no flames please) a
few weeks ago, a great deal. I picked up a green, yellow and a medium red
and a dark red. Great !

"Would you be interested in this" he asks, and pulls out from a box
(underneath the table) a dead-mint, boxed, complete with caps and shade,
50mm f2 Summicron - the one with the focus tab. Believe it or not, I've been
seriously looking for one for a few weeks now, (having flogged the last of
my Nikon equipment on Ebay, I just happen to have the money available).

I'm sure my face said it all - my jaw just dropped. If fact, yes, I'm
really, really interested - but I have to play it cool....don't let on....

"I'll take $650 for it".

Now, these are Canadian dollars we're talking about. And I just looked at a
used (new series) Summicron (that had the white lettering painted black for
"stealth") for over $900. Throw in 15% tax and...

SOLD !

(SOUND OF FRANTIC MAN RUNNING FOR THE BANK MACHINE)

Yes, running. You never know what Leica user is going to suddenly appear,
smelling Letiz glass, swoop out of nowhere, descend on this antique
flea-market, in the middle of the most obscure and industrial part of town,
at 7:00 am on a Sunday, and snatch the lens before I have the chance to ante
up the cash.

One shouldn't take chances in life. So I ran like a man possessed.

Between my daily limit on the bank machine, the contents of my wallet, loose
change and a cheque for the balance, I scrape enough together to buy it. I
didn't even haggle.

Now I know I'll never win the lottery. This was the best find of my entire
life. And, yes, I eventually did get to the Home Depot. I was so elated, I
didn't even mind fixing the damn toilet.

My fiancée called me later that night and asked me how my weekend was.
"Anything exciting ?"

Now, I'm not sure what other people significant others are like, and I don't
like to generalise, but what did I tell her?

...."Good news honey, I fixed the toilet !"

Regards

William