Hardly a day goes by when I don't think about Hardy Harden. Hardy was a hard man to take. A hardened criminal at a young age, his first major crime was to try to rob a hardware store. Due to his hard-luck, he was quickly caught and brought before me, Judge Hardwire. I took a hardline and threatened him with hard time if he didn't become a hard-working citizen. He had a hardpan look on his face even then, and I knew he would stand before me again someday. He was a hard case and it was hard to see that he would not take my advice. Hardy was soon back on the streets and hard-pressed to stay out of trouble. It was a hardscrabble life he led and he played hardball with the other hard-boiled criminals he would meet. He spent half his life in and out of prison doing hard labor. Every time he came up before me, I could see the hardness building up in his hard heart.

His last hard-fisted act, was to try to escape by jumping from the van taking him back to prison. He made a hard landing and, though hardheaded, he was found with a broken neck. I received the hard news that tough-as-hardtack, Hardy Harden had died. He was buried in a hardwood casket in a cemetery in Hardvile.

Check it out! maeverin, a long time poster over at the GoComics Pibgorn comments site, sent a picture to me in exchange for DVDs of the NYComicCon and a copy of the Minotaur Extras which include much of what you see in this blog plus just a litttle more. Her pic can be seen at the bottom of this page. Used with permission.

Well, the car was an easy fix, but the plumbing?

I had to take a section down in the bathroom ceiling right below the leaky outdoor faucet fixture. This is 12 inches long and has a freeze plug at the back. This is where it ruptured when the water that was supposed to drain when the faucet is turned off, froze this winter. After turning the faucet on, water shot through the rupture and into the area above the bathroom causing it to rain inside my house. I had hoped to just unscrew the faucet as these things come with an end that is threaded, but when I twisted the faucet, it came off in my hands. It seems that when the faucet was installed, it was soldered into place when the house was built. Now that I have access to this pipe, I had to cut it a little shorter so I could build up new pipe with a threaded coupling for the new fixture. Once all this is done, I will leak test it before using fiber tape and mud to put the piece I cut out back up. I did check and so far there is no mold growing and it appears that no water damage occured.