Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Fun to watch.

Which is exactly what T.C. said this morning as we sat with our morning coffee watching "the show" unfold outside.

We had our first snow fall.  We've had earlier ones in the year,  and who knows if this will stick around.  I don't mind a little snow at Christmas,  but then it can go.

I'm not even sure I'm willing to get off my arse and take a picture.  Y'all remember what snow looks like?   Good.

Oh wait.

Got a notice from Amazon,  Delivery Dude is expected later today.  Drat.  Might have to clear him a path.

I have a broom right by the back door so I can sweep my way to the garage or beyond.   Which brings me to that whole notion of "being prepared".

Unknown Neighbour Lady from across the street was observed rooting around in her trunk (and subsequently having to scoop the snow out of there that had fallen in)  looking for *something*.  I'd like to refer you to the earlier mention of,  "The Show".
Turns out,  she was looking for a snow brush,  which was in Hubby's vehicle.   No sign of Hubby.  Sad lot.

Winter comes around every year,  at least it has for the last 61 years that I've been on the planet,  so why wouldn't you have a snow brush?  She had on winter tires,  but no snow brush.

OK,  never mind.

I'm too OCD to not be ready for some things,  and too OCD to not go out and clear off the snow.

Later.

Thanks for stopping by.


Friday, December 8, 2017

OK. Two things.

First of all,  Thursday Night Football is starting to piss me off.  I'm not sure if they have the same crew officiating every Thursday night or whatever,  but there were some head scratching moments when even Chris Collingsworth  (one of the announcers,  for the rest of you) couldn't figure out what was up.   And I'd venture to say,  he's a pretty knowledgeable guy.  Can't say the same about myself,  but if it's pointed out to me,  then I get it.

Plus,  even though I went "five for five" a few weeks back,  with a decent payout to then justify sucking for the rest of the season,  I'm getting a bit fed up with not being able to "get" that Thursday night game.  Man!

And now,  here's the other thing:

And this may be further proof that I'm an idiot,  but I'll say it anyway.

I keep forgetting to check for "Comments awaiting moderation."   

Erp.

So,  for some of you who couldn't figure out where the heck your comment went (hello, Bea!)  I do apologise.

Sorry.   (insert sad face)


Now,  for the other 80% of you   (and no,  I'm not exaggerating here)  who filled up that field with utter crap?   Go f**k yerself!   Geez!

You know,  after the first eight to ten times that you try to clog the blog with some bullsh*t message and it doesn't show up?   Maybe you might like to reconsider your marketing strategy?

Just saying.


Now go away.


Not the rest of you!

Thanks for hanging in there.

Enjoy your weekend.  Or whatever.

Every day is Saturday around here,  except of course for that whole "shopping on the weekend" thing.   You kidding?   Not unless I'm desperate. 
Too many people shuffling in the aisles.   Many of them,   OLD ENOUGH to be doing it during the week!

OK,  back to normal breathing.








Thursday, December 7, 2017

Time passes.

I wanted to start out with "Chronicling Life",  but I wasn't even sure if that's a word.  And yes,  time sure has a way of passing.  It's December!  Carumba!

But of course,  there's always something to do.  Or fix.  Or dig up.

Well,  I've officially finished with that whole "digging up" crap.  I wanted to have a certain amount of the new water line in before it got too cold,  but also didn't want to wait until spring when it would be too mucky.  Been there,  done that.  The mud gets every where.





So I basically followed the pipe I had set in the ground with the control wires for the sprinklers,  and added a new water line.
I naively thought I had left some way of going under the concrete step.  Um,  not really.  I just decided to go in front and make life easier.





Figured I had best stop right there,  as there's a plant (more like a tree actually) that Travelling Companion wants to move in the spring.  So I'll dig the rest of the way after that happens.  And I guess there will be mud after all.

There is/was a water line already there,  but when we were living in The Netherlands,  and in spite of some rather detailed instructions on blowing out the lines,  something went awry,  and that didn't turn out. Not naming names.  My own damned fault really.  When we knew in the spring of 08 that we'd be moving overseas,  I never should have charged the lines in the first place.  Silly me.
So fine,  it's a 'do over'.

 Oh,  speaking of 'do overs',  we got a recall notice for our somewhat new dishwasher.   I installed a new dishwasher back in 2014 I think it was,  as our faithful Miele lost its mind after 15 years and refused to pump out the water. 
Bob doesn't bale.  Unless it's on a sinking boat,  but that's another story.

So,  apparently some wire or other would heat up,  and we were to "Discontinue using the dish washer immediately!".   
Riiiiight.   Bosch didn't exactly offer to send someone by the house every night to wash the dishes,  so that wasn't happening.

Anyway,  service Dude shows up a couple Fridays ago,  and I had already removed the kick board and the contents of the under sink cabinet,  so his job was pretty easy.  When they shipped the machine, it was to be hard wired.  No big deal,  as I've hard wired many a machine over the years,  but the previous machine had a plug and so I had put in a GCFI protected receptacle under there.  I simply ran a cord from the new box to the plug and plugged the new one in.

It would seem that,  some folks who may have done something similar had gone ultra cheap (or something, it was never explained to me),  and the wire would overheat.  I'm not sure why a wire rated for the proper amperage would overheat,  but People Be Dumb.   So Service Dude replaced the cord with one that we simply plugged in.  Should have been shipped that way in the first place. Rolling my eyes here.

Only thing was,  when he put the machine back,  it was kind of cock-eyed,  and I resolved to take it out AGAIN and see what the hell was causing the problem.
Not really a whole lotta fun,  as it involves hanging around on my hands and knees and being generally uncomfortable.



Turns out the opening in the side of the adjacent cabinet wasn't allowing the drain hose to be out of the way,  and the machine simply wouldn't go in all the way.  After a little bit of hackin' and hewin',  I got it sorted.  So it was more of an old problem,  rather than a new one.

Lemme see.  What else?

Not too damned much actually.   Oh,  I did change the oil in the generator on Sunday.  I chose Sunday,  as that's the day when it does its weekly run to keep it in working order.  I wanted the oil to be if not hot,  at least warm.  Hot oil comes out heaps easier.
 It wasn't exactly the warmest day,  so that was kind of important.




It's funny because,  when I'd check the oil,  it looked OK,  but when I drained it,  it did look rather gross.  And yes,  I disconnected the battery so it wouldn't accidentally fire up on me.  We don't really have random power outages,  but one never knows I guess.  There's gobs on info on the line if you're really not too sure what to do.

I fired 'er up for a few minutes afterwards just because that's what you're supposed to do,  and everything seems fine.  Until next year.


That might be it for December,  I'm not sure.  If I get struck with the need to say something,  I'll be back. 


Thanks for moving your eyes back and forth.

Keep that stick on the ice.