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.