You Need To Replace It! Oh Yeah!

living.boondockingmexico@yahoo.com

Whenever there is a problem at home or with the cars the answer is always the same.  "Replace the part".  Well, not necessarily true.  Here is a good example and I have more.  A lot has to do with the country or area you live in.   

Recently we had a decrease in water pressure in the house.  The outside water hoses worked fine.  We called a plumber thinking the worst, such as a leak, and he responded, " We need to open the walls and change out the shower faucets.  They are stopped up with sediment".   When you open a wall in a concrete house it is a mess and very expensive to repair not to mention the fact that you will have little luck finding matching tiles.

My mind works in mysterious ways.  We use vinegar to clean just about everything.  It's natural and it's cheap.  It works wonders on glass and chrome faucets.   So, I disconnected the water inlets to the house and attempted to pour vinegar into the lines.  We waited 24 hours and turned things on.  Sediment poured out of the faucets along with rust and it seemed to help.   The showers didn't change.   While I was in San Miguel de Allende, Juan got the idea to put vinegar directly into the shower head outlet.   

I've never seen so much water pressure in all my life.  We now have wonderful showers that once were a trickle to the point I was ready to shower outside with the garden hose and that's not an exaggeration. 

The same goes with car parts.   The starter doesn't work, we change out the magnets inside.   A motor loses power, we have the motor rewound if that is the correct word.  There are shops in Mexico called bobinadoras, that redo the copper wire on the motors.   Everything can be fixed instead of replaced.

I remember when I worked in the pioneer years of computers.   We didn't replace boards and parts.  We repaired them down to the diode.  That can still be done today in Mexico.  I've mentioned that before with the small inverters.  We have blown a few only to have them repaired for a few bucks.  I'm not an electrician or a mechanic, so I went on line to YouTube and found a video that explained that inverters have a regular auto fuse inside.   Now, if it happens, I open it up, pull the fuse and replace it.

It's been a difficult return home.   We both have two weeks of intense teacher training and travel.   We have reviewed, written presentations and trainings for over 25 different textbooks that we will use in the coming weeks.   Pooped is the word but then again, that's what we do twice a year to make money.  Did I mention that we will be making a promotional video for the university and we will be well-paid for the one-hour show?