I gave up on turning the house shutoff..will have my meter off tonight until tomorrow evening.

Rap, I sort of called in pros by asking for help here. If I was using a regular plumber, I'd only get one approach..and I wouldn't learn anything.
You guys fit neatly within what I can afford and I'm learning all sorts of things that will probably come in handy later. Can't beat a deal like that!

999, I wish you had mentioned that horseshoe nail earlier..I bet I have one out here somewhere--grandpa was a blacksmith.

Tonight I will probably break my faucet somehow, but at least I'm not going to end up with the house main broken in my hand and a basement full of water.

I've seen plenty of interesting threads go boring.
It's kind of nice for this boring subject to be kind of interesting!