It was not an easy job, but the plumber finally cut a section a section of the sewer pipe out.

The clog was not in the section of the pipe he cut out as the scope had suggested, so he roto-rootered both sections of the pipe and was able to clear the drain, which saved us cutting more of the slab and digging another hole.

As an interesting archaeological aside, paving bricks were removed when the hole was dug out and what looks like a curb cut is in the upper left-hand corner of the above photo. The front part of the building was built in 1894, and the back part of the building at some time after 1894. It's possible they build the addition right over a street or alley, which would explain the pavers and what could be a curb cut.

Crappy foot prints out the back door.

A sample of tools used by a modern day plumber.

The solution — a double clean out.

Valliant Printing Company, a couple of blocks from our office on Gold in Downtown Albuquerque, and, from what I've heard, Saul's ("Better Call Saul" and "Breaking Bad") favorite place for copies. Valliant Printing got started back in 1918, and after nearly 100 years in business the owners decided it was better to close the business than deal with the cost of relocating and starting anew after the building was sold and they were told to vacate. Not only is the last call of Valliant Printing going to force Saul to find another copy place (easy enough for him), our editor now has to figure out how to get tabs printed (not an easy task). We have used Valliant Printing for various services over the years from offset printing, to tabs, to printing, labelling and mailing random address surveys. Valliant Printing Company will be missed by all, especially ARC and Saul.

What do you do when you have to cut a hole in the floor to dig up the sewer line in the back of the office on Friday the 13th?  First you make like Cristo and wrap the library in plastic.

Then you create a lot of dust cutting up the slab and jack hammering the concrete out of the floor.

Since we are in New Mexico we had to stand and kneel around the hole like we were worshiping it. 

What's the chance of the same guy who sawed into the electrical conduit that no one knew ran under the deck on the roof cutting into two electrical conduits in the slab? 100% chance in a 123 year old building. I got out the meter and the wires in the box have 115 volts on them. There are probably various old floor plugs covered up under the floor all the way to the front of the building. Since we don't need unused, "hot" electrical wires under our feet, I called our electrician and he's going to come out Monday, trace the wires to the breaker box and disconnect them.

Laurie says the excavation work looks like old Roman ruins. It does in a way. The sewer line is under and between the water lines and an old gas line. The clog is between the two joints according to the guy who ran a scope through the sewer line. Since a roto rooter couldn't clear the pipe, we figured it had rusted out and collapsed, but the sewer pipe is not leaking, so the pipe has a mystery clog until the plumber cuts out a section of it to put in a clean out on Monday.

After all the cutting up and digging around, we got board and covered the hole with a piece of plywood until the plumber can come out on Monday.
 

I found a large brood of daddy longlegs under a computer desk I took apart to give away. After photographing the little darlings, I carefully brushed them off in safe places in different rooms, taking care not to hurt them, so they can continue catching various pests. Quite a few of them ended crawling around on me, but I'm sparing you the selfies — one nightmare at a time.

Laurie brought home a new plastic box for organizing, but before anything could be organized, Spunk had to to do his whole routine of looks and expressions from inside the box, looking through the plastic lightly.

I don't know if these two cranes were drunk from eating fermented apples in the orchard or there are just a couple of jokers, because the lead crane has his legs tucked up under so he looks like he lost his legs, and the following crane looks like a spear aimed at the lead.

"Go ahead. Make my day!"

Spunk, Rosencrantz and "L'Italiano Medio" by Articolo 31.

"Got Cattitude?"

"Those Italian music videos are really wild." 

"Oh brother that stupid paparazzo is at it again."

"GRAARRRaarrrrr! Scared you didn't I?"

"Get that CAMERA out of my face before I break your face!  Understand STUPID paparazzo?

Rosencrantz making a triangle in the snow.

Los Reyes Magos and La Befana brought us snow for Epiphany. 

A dusting of snow shows how rugged the west face of the Sandias is.

Path in the bosque.

Rosencrantz with shadows, making a shadow.

Rio Grande, bosque, Sandias.