The Mysterious Leaking Coagulum

Recently when we arose in the morning a lake had sprung up around our Coldspot Kenmore fridge.  Upon scrutinizing the landscape (pulling out the behemoth and removing the cardboard dust splash) it appeared this pastel plastic piping was the source of the agua.  (our lines were not leaking, but there was a steady stream of teardrops crying from one of the fittings of this three fitting coagulum.  Knowing we would have to wait two weeks for our trusty Sears store to schedule a repair technician to arrive at our domicile, and that for each of these trying days the lake would continue to fill, instead I opted to use them trust internets to find the correct replacement part.  As with all purchases on the internet, there were multiple items listed each with their own story.  Some were overpriced.  Some were the wrong part.  Some desired exorbitant shippings fees.  This auction had the correct  numbered part at the reasonable price.  I bought it through eBay, and it arrived in the time specified less than a week later.  I devised a plumbing system that would collect the lake water and allow me to hand pump it into a headless gallon milk jug.  After the part was ordered I resigned myself to this pilgrimage and dutifully syphoned the extraneous water out of the under-unit condensation evaporation pan.  Or is it evaporation condensation pan?  UUCE or ECP?  Only  I defaulted on this responsibility once, and the lake re-emerged in front of our Kenmore gas range.  Quickly I sopped up the mess.  In the meantime it became clear to me a T valve necessarily should be installed in the feeder line in case of a future recurrence.  I ventured to the local pipe shop and for $17.00 acquired the appropriate accouterments.  With uncertainty but gusto I Dremeled off the old copper compression sleeve, replaced it, and tightened in the new valve.  It worked!  I was able to turn the water off before it reached the leaking coagulum.  Joy!  The replacement valve came on a Thursday, and I took one day to survey it.  How exactly do these hose fittings work?  There are no threaded sleeves.  There is no solder, so there should be no bother?  After mulling over the situation I became determined to be successful.  I loosened the two mounting screws holding the double solenoid valve to the chassis of the fridge.  Slowly and carefully I pulled it out of its burrow, and by lightly pressing on the round perimeter sleeves was able easily to extract the appropriate water lines.  One feeds the water dispenser.  One feeds the ice maker, and one is the water inlet from the filter.  To seat these lines in the new valve, simply push the end of the line into the orifice as far as it will go and pull back with a degree of force to seat it.  Evidently there is an "o" ring and four teeth in the fitting which automatically seat the line with no torquing necessary.  (No torquing necessary, the name of my next novel)  Simply I plugged in each differing electrical connector and reattached the coagulum in its original position underneath the fridge.  With the newly installed copper "T" valve attached, connecting the fridge water line was as easy as tightening down the original nut with no compression sleeve required.  The feeder tube to the system has a flange which seals against the new valve.  You must tighten this nut securely and with enough force to seat the flange but not break it.  This means almost as tight as you can turn it without demolishing the flange.  No leak.  

A Failure of Public Education

When I allow myself to observe and try to assimilate currents events in the United States, only can I think that a massive failure of public education has occurred.  This failure whether conspiracy, a natural occurrence, or neglect has been coupled with Capitalism, our chosen socioeconomic system, and manipulated to oppress Americans who are not wealthy.  While as followers of Jesus toil and labor with nothing, it is difficult to imagine that even wealth today in America buys contentment.  Obviously that is not the case, as policemen are dead in Dallas, a retaliation for recklessness and racism in the Caucasian populace.  America always through Capitalism has championed both racism and slavery.  Even after massive loss of life through our Civil War, Southerners continued to wage our campaign of bigotry and hate.  With effective leadership in the White House the country has made great strides.  During the first Bush presidency the "Three R's" became a national campaign, and education was promoted through our system of public education.  America prospered through intelligence and the revering of our youth, the future leaders of this once great country.  Conversely "No Child Left Behind" left our teachers and our youth behind a Capitalist insurgency which usurped creativity, honesty, and Christianity in favor of cheap, prosperous, immediate gratification abandoning the future of America's economy.   In its wake America is floundering shrouded in a cloud of spin, government and corporate malfeasance, and greed.  It would be difficult to find a time of American history when we were less of a country.  No longer are we clever, hip, cool, or leading.  We are a representative contingency of whining rich kids accurately personified by Bieber and West.  We have become a joke, and with the emerging joke of America it becomes far easier to disengage and laugh.  Our survival instincts only can continue to worry about our salvation.  It is far too easy to continue to blame media, but media has become the culprit.  Communication is a more operative term describing the need for a country to unite and find common ideals.  Television and radio, once this voice, have failed on a massive scale.  What could one think, an immigrant visiting America, attempting to digest the mind numbing corporate and governmental propaganda hurled at us daily on television and through the internet.  As soon as an American opens their mouth, I cringe.  There is no readily available solution other than social unrest.  The violence which has beset America in response to social injustice will continue and perhaps proliferate until power is returned to the masses yearning to breath free.