Menthal Cough Drops and Copper Pipes Up from the Floor – Thoughts from November 1, 2025

I’m enormously tempted to tell you about the exciting information I learned recently, but I will tell the story of what I learned in the order it happened. When I read or listen to stories that are out of chronological order, I get confused. I won’t do that to you. This story begins with a conversation between a singer and me. I have been telling her about the issues with my throat almost from the beginning. She knew about my surgery to have my polyp removed and told me about her own surgeries to remove her vocal cord polyps. I told her I was still feeling soreness in my throat. She said it takes time for things to heal.

I asked about cough drops because I was taking two cough drops every day when I went to work. Immediately, she mentioned avoiding menthol-based cough drops. With this information, my brain snapped to attention. I was almost sure the cough drops I was using had menthol in them. Too excitedly, I told her that the cough drops I was using were probably the reason my throat was still sore. In my head, I was doing cartwheels. This could change everything. I went from thinking singing was in my past to planning how soon I could sing again. Even if this is the reason my throat is not improving, it will still take time for my throat to heal.

The first thing I did when I had time was look up the cough drops I had been buying. Sure enough, menthol was the active ingredient. Next, I looked up pectin-based cough drops. She had suggested those as an alternative to the menthol-based cough drops. I ordered them to be shipped the next day. I had them for my drive to work the next day. It’s been a few days since I’ve been using the new cough drops. Before I declare the new way of doing things a success, I’ll give it some more time. My vocal cords still feel sore. I’ll be interested to see how they look in my next checkup with the doctor. I have an appointment in January with the doctor.

Because Patti and I don’t get water or ice out of the fridge often, I’ve had the waterline to the fridge turned off. The last thing I did with the fridge was notice that the copper pipe to the fridge had bent and was leaking. As a reminder, the copper pipe came up through the floor. This is apparently common in mobile homes. Very few pipes come out of walls. I had tools to cut the pipe and reattach it to a straight section of pipe. I’ve dealt with this kind of problem before, but not with copper pipes. They are thin, which makes cutting them difficult. I cut out the bent section of the pipe. Everything seemed fine until I noticed I had nothing to attach the pipe to on the fridge.

All I could do was attach the pipe into the same place the bent piece came out of. This was only a problem when I saw a ring on the bent pipe I needed. It seemed simple to just remove it from the pipe. Of course, the bent pipe made it hard to get the ring off. I probably could have gone to a hardware store and gotten the ring, but I had the ring already. I just needed to get it off the pipe. Pinching and pulling only seemed to make it worse. Right when I was about to give up, the ring moved slightly. Eventually, it came off. Now I just needed to put it back on the straight copper pipe. This part worked almost too smoothly. I went to turn the water back on and Patti watched for leaks. When I got back, there were no signs of leakage. I tested the water on the fridge, and it flowed into a cup freely. Take that copper pipe sticking up from the floor!