You know you are a cheapskate when...

...your partner complains for four years about the crap water pressure in the shower, and you do nothing. Until she starts shopping for a new shower head, and nifty add-on gadgets to increase our mediocre water pressure. Yep. I heard her over here shopping and comparing on amazon.com.

I stirred myself to disassemble the old shower head and look for the "flow reduction disk" that many YouTube sites promised me was in there. Nope. But the pressure is still lousy. And C. has soaked it in vinegar and cleaned out the screen. So then I rummaged in the plumbing section of the gym, and came up with a new-in-box Waterpik shower head (did I mention we buy all kinds of weird remodeling stuff at estate sales?). A cheerful little tag on the unit advised me that it included a non-removable flow reduction disk so that I would be in compliance with federal law any time I took a shower.

Yes, my fellow Americans, we are allowed 2.5 gallons per minute, whether we take 14 long showers a week, or one short one. I'm pretty sure the old shower head was putting out about a gallon a minute, so 2.5 gallons would be a huge improvement – but I don't appreciate Uncle butting into my business. I'm on my own well, not a city water supply. I don't have a lawn. I'm careful about water. I think I can handle the responsibility. Feh.

So I grudgingly install the newer shower head (hey – I'm not going buy a brand-new one). The flow is better, even with the reduction gadget. I did a timed fill of a five-gallon bucket, and we are at 2.2 gallons a minute. (If I could get at that damn reduction disk I bet we could reach 2.5 gallons....)

So we'll see what she thinks.

C. hiked out and thinned some little pine trees and brought them back on the sled for the goats to gnaw. And she mapped out the spot where the roof is leaking into the bathroom.

Em called with a report on her housing search in town. She's still looking for a one-level place, but  the market has gone nuts – anything fairly nice in her price range is snapped up the first day, with several competing offers. This is a fine time to be a house flipper in Spokane. Put in a granite countertops and stainless-steel appliances, and sit back and count your money. I'd feel better about buying one of those places if I didn't know most flippers use cheap materials and do shoddy work.

Or maybe I'm just a cheapskate.

Four eggs today. I made bread in the machine.