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The album is "The Way Out" by The Books. For me it was a staple spring/summer album this year during my long after work walks around downtown Seattle. There's elements of the album that I've mapped to environmental cues during those long warm weather walks. I'm listening to it now during the thick of winter and it's twisting my reality to a fair degree. As I listen and perceive sunlight, physically I feel things that I shouldn't be feeling. For example I feel warmth even though its cold and damp outside. It's like a subliminal, pavlovian present from my springtime self.

It's not the first time I've felt this. There's tracks I used to listen to while running that have a similar effect. I wonder if there's something to all this?

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I'll be thinking of my Chicago friends weathering the blizzard as I sip this one in the rain.

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Sigh.

Long day, little sleep, rough ride home in the rain.

La had a big SPPA holiday party tonight so I was scheduled to run the kids. The plan was steaks, stories and bed.

I walked in, said hello to everyone but I was still a little keyed up from the ride home. I headed to the bathroom to take a leak, pulled up the seat and it fell back down. This has been happening occasionally for the past week or so, god only knows why. This time though I really had to struggle with the seat. I'd put it up and it just kept falling back down. I got really pissed but finally got it to stay. Somewhere deep inside I said to myself if the damned seat falls while I'm pissing, I'm going to have a fit.

Seat fell. Had fit.

Fit ends and I discover that the bolt cap fastening the toilet on the left side had popped off. The cap on the right side came off too and the bolt was laying on it's side. This meant that the toilet was going to have to come off so that I could reset the bolts in the closet flange and as we all know when the toilet comes off, the wax ring must be replaced.

I undid everything and pulled the toilet off.

On the positive side, it really didn't stink. I had to do this many years ago at my parent's house and that one stunk like hell but this one wasn't bad at all. That turdular stuff on the floor in the photo is ring wax. I took a bunch of pics, tweeted about it, packed the kids up and headed to the store.

Stopped at Jack In The Box for dinner. No steaks tonight.

I wound up getting two wax rings. I knew that if I only got one I'd screw it up and have to go back. I also got a waxless fitting, an extra pack of bolts, plummer's putty and plumber's cleaner rags.

Came home, plunked the toilet in the shower to let it drain and get it out of the way so I could work on the closet flange. First I cleaned off all the wax. Turns out the large opening on either side of the closet flange is positioned directly underneath the bolt holes of the toilet, which is not a good thing. That means unless the closet bolts are absolutely perfect they'll either spin or pop out when I tighten the bolts. I figured if I tried to reposition the closet flange tonight I was really asking for trouble so I decided to try it anyway.

I started with the waxless fitting because, well, I thought it'd be the easiest option. I set it all up and put the toilet in place but one of the bolts came off underneath. Tried again, got one side tight but the other side came out through the opening in the closet flange. Long story short it took me about ten tries, between which I had to completely pull the toilet off and plop it back into position again.

Once everything was set, I completely lost faith in the waxless fitting. I convinced myself that the seal between the toilet and the fitting wasn't tight enough. There's no way to check really so I said eff it, took the whole thing apart and went with the wax ring instead. I wish I'd have gone this route first because the wax on the ring helped to hold the closet bolts in place after I'd seated the toilet.

Hooked everything back up. Sanitized the bathroom. Put the kids to bed.

And wouldn't you goddamned know, the effing seat still falls down? After a long troubleshooting session it appears the tank lid is keeping the seat and seat lid from setting past vertical. Why it's doing this all of a sudden is a goddamned mystery. But this along with the fact that the closet flange isn't positioned right makes me want a new, professionally installed toilet.

I need a beer.