I like the word… shit. Shit, shit, shit. Such a flexible universial word. A word to be used for eveything from work to play, good or bad. Before you chastise me for offensive inappropriateness, consider the origins of the word, shit. While I don’t know if this origin is true, it came from the internet, which as we all know, is always accurate.
In the days when sailing ships were opening up world trade routes, when commodities such as spices were worth as much as gold, (18thCentury??) some ships would carry fertilizer (cow manure). These ships would periodically explode & be lost at sea, & no one knew why. Once they realised the cause was due to a build up of methane gas in the hold (& probably some sailor with a lantern) they would stamp on the words “Ship High In Transit”, so the fertilizer would be lashed to the decks & exposed to the fresh air, avoiding any methane build-up. These words became common in use, and were eventually abbreviated to S.H.I.T., hence the word we use today.
As a former navy sailor, I feel have a right, yes, almost an sacred obligation to use the word, s.h.i.t. where ever and whenever appropriate. Carrying on the nautical traditions of the past which I was so proudly a part of! Just how pervasive is the word shit in our language? Check out the following link:
One of my personal favorite sayings is “Shit flows down hill” (mainly said about work projects when I did work). Such a wonderful statement on so many different levels I wish I could claim it a a Nick-Nugget, but someone coined the phrase long before me. As an navy enlisted sailor, I was the lowly receiver at the bottom of the hill. When I became an officer, I found I liked being at the top of the hill liberally doling out, well…. you know….shit. Usually, my offical tasking was accomped by the comment, “what kind of shit is this? Sir?” or “what the shit” mainly it was “who gives a shit”. Ah, found rememberances of my military career when those who worked with probalby thought I was full off….shit. I think shit is maybe why I got into flying, to get even higher up the proverbial hill. At 15,000 ft everything is down hill, baby!
In any case, since I live at the top of my terestial hill, I always thought when the big ass hurricane hits and the city sewer systems stopped functioning I could still flush MY toilets and my neighbors at the bottom of the hill would back up. Not quite a neighborly gesture… but practical, strategic, emergency planning.
Well, I found my sewer wasn’t the problem after all! So in this case…. the shit flowed up hill! Talk about reverse delegation! We found the CITY line was plugged somewhere in the street line beyond my property. I didn’t have to replace my pipe at all. SHIT. Even the plumbers said my old orangeburg pipe seemed in very good condition.
- Marking the utilities
The bad news is my yard has a 4 ft by 75 ft trench in it. The good news is I now have a brand new line and I am a lot smarter now. Geezee, I thought I knew just about everything about plumbing, only to be humbled one more time. Education always comes at a price!
The way I view this experience is that the old pipe would eventually need to be changed, I needed a sewer clean out near the street (according to the new code), and it is better to have it done now at cheaper labor prices than in the future at higher prices.
After the pipe was installed the city came to clean out their portion of the system. Two nice ladies ran the clean-out truck!
Bottom line is the bright yellow box is gone and everything is back up. Lost almost a week of production on the plane, but that’s OK. Life is good once again!
House | Nick | 
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