November 11th - 23, 2025 - Northern Lights - Garage Electric - Powell Hall - Cat Door - Wake - Window Shades -Electric Panel - Water Heater

My Blog Reflection

You have not lived a perfect day, even though you have earned your money, unless you have done something for someone will never be able to repay you.

Ruth Smeltzer

November 11, 2025:

Due to unprecedented weather conditions, we were able to see the Northern Lights in Perryville, Missouri. Crazy. Here is a picture from our deck.

It was a marvelous event and many others in the area were able to get better pictures. Several years ago we were in Iceland and there we could watch the Northern Lights dance all over the sky for hours. What an amazing phenomenon.

November 12, 2025:

Back to work on Alexa's house. With Alexa's help the exterior cut-off switch was installed and the conduit all connected for getting electric to the garage. Cutting a hole for the conduit in the asbestos shingle on the garage went a lot easier than I anticipated. Here are a couple of pictures. On the house we just mounted the new shut-off box over the old outlet opening.

November 14, 2025:

John came over and we fished the wire through the conduit. After that was completed, and all connections made for power in the cut-off switch box, we now had an outside GFI outlet on the house that worked and electric into the garage. We then strategized about where to run electric in the garage for lights, outlets, and a future garage door opener. A trip to the hardware store will be in order.

After we were finished with the electric, Alexa got busy digging a trench for the downspout drain to run out into the back yard. My job was to make two trips to the hardware store to purchase two ten-foot long pieces of pipe and to make sure the pipe was pitched down so the water would drain out.  Rain is coming next week so it was a good time to get this pipe installed.

November 18, 2025:

John came over and we ran the electric inside the garage. We installed a light on a switch near the door. We installed two wall outlets and an outlet above for a future garage door opener. Having electric in the garage will be quite useful.

In the evening we went with John and Carlene to Powell Symphony Hall in St. Louis to attend a lecture by Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian opposition leader and author. For his outspoken views against the Putin regime he was sent to prison in Siberia for 25 years of solitary confinement. President Biden got him released in a prisoner exchange. He was poisoned twice and survived. To this day he fears for his life. His story was quite moving.

I hadn't been in Powell Hall for over fifty years. It has been extensively remodeled and is magnificent with everything in red, white and gold. We had mezzanine seats and arrived WAY early. My pictures were taken before most arrived. 

The lobby:

Orchestra seating:

We had Mezzanine seating:

November 19, 2025:

I have been watching Facebook Marketplace for a cheap dresser or chest of drawers for Alexa to use in her shop area to store tools, hardware, etc. This morning I spotted a double dresser with mirror out on the curb here in town with a note that it was free. Alexa and I jumped in the truck and headed over to the address. There it was sitting in the rain. It was a nice double dresser from the 1940s in great shape. All the drawers were there and all in perfect working order. We disconnected the mirror and loaded the dresser into the bed of the truck. With all the drawers pulled out we easily moved it into the basement and into Alexa's shop area.

We stuck it back in the corner but she may rearrange things later as her work shop develops. What a find! It even had a glass top! I don't know how long that will last in a shop though.

The project for the day was to install a "cat door" in the back door so that the cats can get to their litter boxes on the sun porch and lay around in the sun out there. Here is a picture of the back door before. 

The cat door has to be installed at the cats' shoulder height. I was concerned about cutting so much "meat" out of the bottom of the door but had no choice. Here is a picture of the cat door installed. Alexa put food out on the porch. The cats went through so that was good.  I have some turd brown paint we can paint the wood spacers we had to use on the door to mount the cat door.

By email I was notified that the roller shades Alexa ordered had arrived at Ace Hardware. We made a quick trip to pick them up for installation tomorrow.

In the evening I went out to the Seminary for Fr. John Gagnepain's wake. He and I go back 62 years when I was a high school freshman at St. Louis Preparatory Seminary South. He was Vice-Rector and barely out of the seminary himself.  In my junior year he taught me Chemistry. I remember that that year he let Bill LaGrand and me make wine for a science project, trusting us seventeen year olds not to consume it. Under his supervision he did, however, allow us to "taste" it. It was awful. It would never be "Communion Wine". LOL  He was a wonderful man and a great teacher but had been ill for quite some time.

November 20, 2025:

The roller shades we ordered for Alexa's house only came in one size. The project of the day was to cut six down to fit the windows. All were cut without a hitch (other than one of the cats wanting to be on top of the shade on the table as we were measuring and cutting). Alexa now has privacy! 

While I was at the house Alexa told me there was no hot water. I checked and the breaker was tripped. I reset it, not thinking much more about it at the time. I thought the breaker may have gotten bumped when we were working in the electric panel box earlier.

November 21, 2025:

It is required that all electric panel boxes have the circuit breakers marked so that you can identify which breaker controls which circuits throughout the house. Most of the writing in the electric panel box in Alexa's basement was illegible or marked wrong. We also moved a circuit or two to the new subpanel. Today I used a new Klein tool I purchased to trace circuits so I could mark them in the box. I used my label maker so I could place the labels over the old (mostly wrong) writing. 

While at the house I also installed a wooden handle I made to pull the cellar door closed. I also and put a heavier "S" hook on the chain that holds the door when opened from hitting the house. The cellar door when open puts a lot of strain on the chain and hooks due to its weight. 

Alexa advised that the water heater was still not working. I checked and once again I found that the circuit breaker was tripped. With my multitester I tested each of the heating elements in the heater. Both appeared to be working properly. I flipped the breaker back on and upon arriving back at the water heater there was a VERY LOUD POP. I checked and the circuit breaker was tripped again. Obviously there is an electric problem causing a dead short. I quickly unscrewed the cover where the incoming power wire connects to the water heater wiring. Upon lifting the cover smoke came out and this is what I found.  Definitely not good. 

Inside this power connection cavity there was standing water on the top of the tank just below these wire connections. This obviously caused a short in the wiring. A few days before Alexa had noticed some water standing on the top of the water heater near the pressure relief valve. Obviously water from the valve was leaking inside the water heater.

One of the 120 volt lines was burnt to a crisp and the other didn't look much better. No matter how I twisted I could not get either wire nut off to work on making a new connection. It was as if they were welded together. I had to cut the wires. Luckily you don't see something like this very often.

After cutting the wires coming out of the water heater I was left with extremely short wires to reconnect to the power supply. Using new wire nuts was out of the question. My first thought was to crimp connectors to the water heater wires and make pigtails to connect from there to the incoming power wires. I then happened on the idea of using Wago connectors. These are a relatively new type of connector that allow each wire to be pushed into the connector and then locked down for a strong connection. I just happened to have a couple of them from some other project. Here is a picture of the Wago connectors installed. I did a strong pull test on all wires to make sure all were tight.

I reinstalled the cover and turned on the electric. All appears to be working properly. 

I was concerned about the water found earlier around the pressure relief valve. I decided to take the valve out and put new pipe dope on the threads to seal it, or, if the threads looked bad, to purchase a new valve. Using a pipe wrench with an 18 inch cheater bar, I was not able to budge the pressure relief valve. Even with Alexa holding the tank the best she could, the tank would still move when I put pressure on the wrench. The tank moving isn't good when it is connected to the water pipes. It will be a problem if the valve continues to leak because water will once again seep down and gather back at the electric connection cavity. We will watch it very closely. I had Alexa check for any water leakage before she left the house in the evening. There was none.

November 22, 2022:

Upon arriving at Alexa's the first thing I did was go down to check the top of the water heater for any sign of water leakage from the pressure relief valve. There was none. It was all dry as a bone. I smeared some caulk around the base of the valve so that if any water did come out of the valve, it could not seep into the tank top below and pool up in the electric junction cavity again.

We then made a trip to Ace Hardware to get some drawer slides to make pull-outs in one of the kitchen cabinets. I gathered up several tool boxes I had left at the hose for projects which were now finished. Before I left the house I again checked the water heater and there was not a drop of water on top. I'm wondering if maybe the water heater hadn't been used for a while and when the water heated up it leaked out of the spring clip on the top of the valve until it re-sealed itself. We will keep an eye on it.

I had placed the second roll of linoleum that was left in the garage by the previous owner on Facebook Market Place for sale. A lady came by and purchased it early this afternoon.  One less thing to trip over in the garage. LOL

The handrail on one side of the front steps is extremely loose. We have the same rails on the porch in our place in Florida and I had the exact problem there last season. I fixed it by driving wedges between the post and the socket it attaches to on the step. I then covered the entire area with JB Weld and painted it. Today I drove a couple of wedges in on Alexa's handrail and will cover the entire area of the post and socket with JB Weld weather permitting tomorrow.

November 23, 2025:

The weather did not cooperate for working on the handrail. During the afternoon it was warm enough for the epoxy to be applied but it takes twenty-four hours to totally cure. I was afraid it would not set up properly as the temperature dropped during the night. This fix will need at least two coats of the epoxy and the weather is getting colder so this project will probably be delayed until spring, unless we get a few days of warmer weather.