No, not me, I can usually make it to the bathroom, even at my age galloping out of my bed. The leak is by the water meter in the basement. It's just a small drip that does not accumulate or cause puddle problems.

A beloved Government Water Plumber was here today. He cried out, "A leak in the pipe above the meter belongs to the water company. Below it, the leak is your's! Goodbye.".

I can still do some things for home repair but plumbing is a tough chore for an amateur. The feed out of the meter is leaking at a joint that has some corrosion on it from its 1947 installation. Best to call in a pro and so we made the call to have one come.

The house was built in 1947 and was in great condition from the original owner who was an Army engineer officer out of WWII that kept things working well when we moved in back in 1978 but now the house is 72 (a tad older than me) and despite good upkeep for 41 years things that were rock-solid in 1947 can go wrong in 2019.

We have upgraded and/or replaced every window, the electrical system and the oil heat. We have had the garage rebuilt.

A plumber's bill will not have the wife and I eating cat food but the older I become the more I begin to understand the plight of people my age that live on Long Island. House upkeep can be a burden for senior citizens. For a widow it's got to be worse.

The kids and grandchildren vanish to get away from the onerous taxation while strange people from foreign lands jam up single-family homes like the home was a boarding house. At least they work but six cars looking for a spot near a 2-bedroom Cape Cod is a bit much. And a gentleman from a few blocks away got shot by a Hempstead cop two days ago after trying to run over the officer after a police chase. Obviously the officer hadn't been trained how to deal with the "Black Lives Matter" movement or how to deal with a black ex-con trying to kill him.

Rant over. The wife won't sell or move. We're A-OK and moving more than a dozen cats south could be problematical.