stubbed toes and mud pies

[flowerbug]

mebbe get washing machine fixed tomorrow. not holding my breath... at least parts are in today so if they are the parts that are actually needed then we have a washing machine back tomorrow sometime. on the other hand...

 

[flowerbug]

nope... other parts on order...

 

[Branching Out]

Must say that I love the old mechanical washing machines that can be easily repaired if you find the right parts. The new electronic ones don't seem to last nearly as well, so we're holding on to our vintage washer as long as we can. We picked it up second hand for $100 and it's been a work horse for 20 years.

 

[Dahlia]

Must say that I love the old mechanical washing machines that can be easily repaired if you find the right parts. The new electronic ones don't seem to last nearly as well, so we're holding on to our vintage washer as long as we can. We picked it up second hand for $100 and it's been a work horse for 20 years.

I find that washing clothes in a bucket by hand works better than today's new washing machines!

 

[flowerbug]

I find that washing clothes in a bucket by hand works better than today's new washing machines!

with as much washing that Mom does that's entirely umpossible... me, left to my own devices could get by on washing things in the sink.

however, if you ever get a chance to visit a laundromat and see how much they are charging per load you can rapidly appreciate how much $ you save by having a washer at home.

 

[flowerbug]

you can write things down, on paper, a note, send someone to the store, and they will still come home with the wrong item.

Mom needs a lot of light for her quilting and we've had these large bright shop lights in her room that shine light up on the white ceiling and that reflects down all over and she could see well enough, until the day before yesterday one of the lights was flickering so i got up there and checked it out and yes, it was failing, so time to replace it.

item wanted, shop light, plug in, no plastic diffuser cover wanted. the person who helped Mom gave her two lights, direct wire, diffuser cover, arg! it wasn't going to be enough light. so i had to run out after she got home last night and get the lights i needed or she'd have not been able to quilt this morning.

oh, did i mention the helper gave her lights that were more money for less light and not very efficient? lumens, color/temperature and efficiency are important. so pretty much for $12 extra i doubled the light and improved the energy use and got the right temperature.

the shopping experience itself was horrible, they had this loud obnoxious music playing on repeat in that section (like it was wired right into the display so i couldn't ignore it). if there's anything that makes me want to walk out of any store it is annoying piped in loud music.

another annoying thing was that some boxed items were not clearly marked as to whether they were direct wired or had a plug. one rather nice unit i would have bought i had to open the box to find out if it had a plug or was direct wired. sadly it was direct wired and i wasn't going there for this project...

i hate shopping... *grumble, get off my lawn, etc.*

the drive home was right at dark and it had rained today and there was fog all over so i was wary of deer running out. as i was coming down our road (the final stretch) there was a deer standing right at the side of the road like it was planning on coming across but i saw it and slowed down enough and it didn't panic and jump out in front of me at the last moment and also it didn't run into the side of the car (which has happened to me before) so i did get back home safely.

the light worked and are doing their job and Mom is fine today. keeping Mom happy is my job as much as possible...

p.s. the LED shop light lasted 10yrs. we have five more of those that haven't failed yet...

 

[flowerbug]

packed up a few Purple Dove bean seeds to send off to family in NM and also sent some fairly random selections to see if any of them get grown.

possible snow, rain, mix tonight and tomorrow morning.

plumper comes tomorrow maybe.

have not heard anything about washing machine repair or parts yet this week.

cleaned the shower a bit, gets rusty, tried something different just to see how it went. did ok, but not a complete clean, at least it took off some of it. think the soap scum gets in the way of the cleaner chemical so perhaps a pre-scrub might help with that...

did some research on a project i need to fix, plus talked to a broker support person to try to get more information. turns out that they don't really have the information either as any kind of formula other than what is given to them from others. which means that i can't build that calculation into my own program...

still trying to get other things done. not much actually happening yet though. just too much time getting distracted and pulled away and not doing what i'd like to work on. tomorrow will likely be much the same, have hopes for more progress Thu-Fri.

 

[flowerbug]

the last dead tree in the north hedge finally fell over. not sure which storm did it but the other day i was sitting on the couch looking out the patio door windows and it was gone. it'd been there many years as a perch for the birdies. i never wanted to bring it down as it was also food for woodpeckers. the other dead tree over there that came down is still leaning against the maple tree. too wet and muddy for me to go over there and do much with it or try to pull it away. eventually gravity will sort it out if i do nothing so that's always the best option as i can do other projects that do need some direction and efforts.

 

[flowerbug]

sink repair went ok, but almost was not great, right when i'd paid the guy and he left i went to check under the sink and make sure it was all dried out and there was more water there than i thought should be there and so i was able to go outside and catch the pumber before he drove away to come back in and make sure it wasn't leaking. it took him a bit, but now it's right again. *whew!* avoided a 2nd round of calling for service and then waiting for it to happen and all those interruptions it brings.

the fixture that was down there did not have any threads on it so i have no idea how it was supposed to have worked to begin with, it's likely it was just chance that nobody had bumped that connection for all these years, but really i think the guy who replaced the faucet didn't want to fix what he'd broken and just left it.

we'd had some water down there over the past few years and wondered what was going on but i thought it was the faucet that we had replaced that was leaking around the base so never looked into it further. then Mom bumped it enough the other day to make the problem apparent.

what is funny is that is where Mom piles all the toilet paper that she loads up on so we would not have noticed it until i'd taken the mixer out of there (yes, we store the large Kitchenaid mixer under our tiny bathroom sink) and the toilet paper fell over. when Mom went to make room for me to put the mixer back in there she noticed that the toilet paper was wet. so then we found out the real problem at last.

 

[digitS']

Plumbing is beginning to seem like mechanical work on cars.

At one time, I was able to set timing and do simple tune-ups. I have participated with Dad in painting, replace transmission, and complete engine overhaul. Lubes, light and fuse replacement -- even adjust headlights. Now, I haven't a clue what's under the hood. I still change the oil and lube steering.

Plumbing, I did facets, pipes -- I have even threaded pipe and installed it. I can replace some things but I don't understand the new facets. Replace, replace ...

Steve