Plumb Smart Inc - October 2019

the

OCT. 2019

www.BePlumbSmart.com 404.427.0302

THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN’

In 1963, my favorite songwriter Bob Dylan wrote “The Times They Are A-Changin’”.

are better and farther along in their lives than I was when their age. The trick is to do your best in aiming and releasing the arrow, then let it go … let it go. So what’s the target? It’s not engineering, marketing, nursing, sales, or any other profession. The target is Truth. I aimed my arrows at the Truth.

“Come gather ‘round, people Wherever you roam And admit that the waters Around you have grown And accept it that soon

You’ll be drenched to the bone If your time to you is worth savin’ And you better start swimmin’ Or you’ll sink like a stone For the times they are a-changin’ ... ”

“ ... The line it is drawn The curse it is cast The slow one now Will later be fast As the present now Will later be past The order is rapidly fadin’ And the first one now Will later be last For the times they are a-changin’.” We are but a speck on the timeline of eternity. In Ecclesiastes 3 we are

The seasons of our lives are a changin’ too. I was forty-four years old when I started Plumb Smart Inc. My children were fourteen, twelve and eight. The fourteen year old now lives in Colorado Springs, CO and has her own consulting business. The twelve year old is now married and she has a great husband and a beautiful one year old daughter and lives in Cincinnati, OH. My son, the eight year old, now works with me and when he’s not plumbing, he can often be found in a local pub somewhere playing his guitar and singing his own homemade songs.

taught, “There is a season for everything, and a time for every event under heaven … ”

“ ... Come mothers and fathers Throughout the land And don’t criticize

What you can’t understand Your sons and your daughters Are beyond your command Your old road is rapidly agin’ Please get out of the new one If you can’t lend your hand For the times they are a-changin’ ... ”

Are you at the beginning, middle or end of a season of life? I think we are always in phases of transitioning into and through all three. Learn from the past but don’t dwell on it. Manage the present. Enjoy each moment as much as possible but don’t get trapped in it so that you can’t be looking ahead to the future. If you and your arrows are aimed at the Truth, you can flex and bend and still hit your marks as the times, your seasons of life, are a changin’.

My wife, Dianne, and I have found ourselves empty nesters. The times, they did change. I heard once that good parenting is propelling your children forward like an archer shooting arrows at a target. My wife and I have proved to be decent archers. I feel like our “arrows” are hitting their targets. All three of my children

–Pa u l Little

1

www.BePlumbSmart.com

404.427.0302

Thinking With Your Gut While it may seem strange to think about, the human stomach is truly a thing of wonder. Most humans only acknowledge its digestive processes, but the gut plays a much more influential role in our day-to-day lives than Your gut is connected to the limbic system, the part of the brain that processes emotions. The brain sends messages to all other In response to these emerging findings, dietary approaches and probiotics are being explored to see how well they can modulate a person’s

organs in your body, so it’s not surprising it communicates with your stomach, too. What is surprising, however, is that the connection goes both ways. Just as your brain can relay information to your gut about excitement and anxiety, your gut can have a direct impact on the way you feel. According to a recent study published by the National Library of Medicine, when a person’s microbiome — the diverse population of good and bad bacteria living in the GI tract — becomes significantly altered or imbalanced, psychological or neurological issues can arise.

microbiome and address symptoms. While research is still being conducted to determine the extent of the stomach’s influence over emotional and mental states, plenty of evidence proves the connection is real. Your stomach “talks” to you all the time, and, if you didn’t have enough reasons to pay attention to the food you eat, now you have one more thing to keep in mind. If you start thinking a bit more with your gut, your health will thank you for it!

simply breaking down food for nutrient production; it is closely connected to our emotional states, as well.

Think about it. Have you ever felt butterflies before a date, intestinal pain during moments of stress, or nausea before an important presentation? Have you ever told someone to “follow their gut” before making a big decision? These physical symptoms are not a coincidence; they are known in the scientific world as the gut-brain axis .

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

Do You Know Where to Find These Parts of Your Plumbing System?

At Plumb Smart, we wish we could arrive at your home right when you need our help solving a plumbing problem— but we can only be in so many places at once. However, knowing the location of these three parts of your plumbing system, and what to do with them in the event of a leak or backup, can keep the problem at bay until we arrive.

outside and you can’t find the meter, you could call the water department to come shut off your meter —but that could take hours. And, if we’re super busy, it could take us a while to get there, too. So, it’s in your best interest to be able to do this yourself.

TheMainShutoff Valve

TheMainDrainCleanout Pipe

When there’s a leak inside your home, can you shut off the water? If you knowwhere the shut off valve is and if you’re at home, yes. Now, there’s a valve made by Phyn that detects leaks and shuts off the water automatically, which you can control with your phone. Check it out at our website or at Phyn.com. It monitors water usage and pressure as well as recognizes freezing conditions to alert you before pipes freeze and burst.

Another important item on your home’s plumbing is a sewer main cleanout. Every home built

since the 1980s has one, but they often get covered with leaves, mulch, or overgrown shrubbery. If you knowwhere your sewer main is, you can remove the cap to keep raw sewage from backing up into your home until we get there. There’s also a cool thing called a sewer popper that replaces the cap. If your sewer backs up, the sewer popper floats out of the pipe, preventing a backup in your house. We’ll discuss more plumbing tips next month, but, until then, check out our website and Facebook page as well as our YouTube channel, PlumbSmartPaul, for more information.

TheWaterMeter

You should knowwhere your water meter is and have a key to turn it off. If you don’t have a meter key, they’re available at any local home improvement store. If there’s a leak

2

www.BePlumbSmart.com

404.427.0302

THE AMAZING CONNECTION BETWEEN YOUR STOMACH AND YOUR BRAIN

WORD SEARCH

Ooze Smoothie

Autumn Candy Carve Costume

Scarecrow Halloween October Orange

Pumpkin Football Harvest Leaves

SUDOKU

While these smoothiesmay not be nuclear-flavored— in fact, they’re all-natural—their neon colorsmay convince you otherwise. They’re a fun and festiveway to get kids to drink their fruits and veggies.

Ingredients

Green Smoothie Ingredients • 8 oz almond or coconut milk • 2 cups fresh spinach • 1/2 frozen banana • 1/2 fresh avocado • 2 tbsp hemp seeds • 1 tbsp maple syrup • 1 cup ice

Purple Smoothie Ingredients • 8 oz almond or coconut milk • 1 cup frozen blueberries • 1/2 cup fresh spinach • 1/2 frozen banana • 2 tbsp hemp seeds • 1 tbsp maple syrup • 1 cup ice

Directions

1.

In a blender, combine all ingredients.

2.

Blend on high until smooth.

3. For added fun, serve in beakers and flasks with crazy straws.

Inspiredby ForkAndBeans.com

3

www.BePlumbSmart.com

404.427.0302

PRST STD US POSTAGE PAID BOISE, ID PERMIT 411

175 Goldfinch Path Acworth, GA 30101

www.BePlumbSmart.com 404.427.0302

The Times They Are A-Changin’ 1

Learn About Your Gut-Brain Axis

Three Plumbing System Parts to Know 2

Oozie Smoothie

Word Search 3

Weird History: The President and the Hollow Earth 4

President Adams’ Journey to the Center of the Earth

Today, some of the most fantastic discoveries are being made in the far reaches of space, but there was a time when people were more interested in what was going on beneath their feet. In the early 1820s, a United States army officer named John Cleves Symmes Jr. traveled the country teaching audiences about the Hollow Earth Theory. Symmes and some others at the time believed the Earth was made up of several solid spheres, one inside of another. They also believed each of these subterranean worlds was habitable and full of life. This is where the myth of the mole people originated. Symmes wanted to lead an expedition to the North Pole, where he believed he would find an entrance to the center of the Earth. He went to Congress and lobbied for money to fund his expedition. Congress shot him down, but Symmes found an ally in an unlikely place: President John Quincy Adams. John Quincy Adams was the sixth president of the United States and son of the second president and founding father, John Adams. He traveled the world with his father, graduated from Harvard with honors, helped create the national observatory, and secured funding for the Smithsonian Institution. It’s possible Adams’ interest in Symmes’ trip to the North Pole was less about the Hollow Earth Theory and meeting the mole people than his larger interest in learning more about such a remote part of the world. However,

Adams’ reputation as a naturalist didn’t protect him from scrutiny.

Even in the early 1800s, the Hollow Earth Theory was like the Flat Earth Theory today; there were a couple avid supporters, but most people knew it was ridiculous. Having a sitting U.S. president greenlight the expedition was shocking. However, you didn’t learn about Symmes’ expedition

in your history class for a reason. Adams wasn’t a popular president,

and not just because he might have wanted to meet the mole people. He only served one term. By the time the expedition started to get off the ground, Andrew Jackson had been elected, and he quickly killed the project. In 1936, Congress would approve funding for an expedition to the South Pole, though this expedition focused on exploring the surface of the Earth, not what is underneath it.

4

www.BePlumbSmart.com

404.427.0302