The Battle of the AC

Last week we noticed that it was getting a little warmer in the house, and I realized that I hadn't heard the AC kick in on awhile. Occasionally there was an odd buzzing sound and then it quit, but I just though my wife was doing laundry and it was the obnoxious buzzer on the dryer. By about ten at night we looked at the thermostat and it was reading somewhere in the upper 80's or so. The buzzing was the AC trying to come on without any success. I ventured downstairs to see what I could find and discovered ice on the pipe leading to the furnace. I figured that we'd give it a night to thaw out and see if that was the deal.

The next day I left for work and didn't think much of it. I got home and noticed that the ice had all melted and figured I'd see if it would fire up again. It wanted to. I could hear it thinking about it, but not much had changed. I just turned it off and figured we'd deal with it later. Funds are low and looking at parts it was going to be more than a couple of bucks to get anything. I had a friend come over and tear into the furnace to see what the deal was. The blower motor was pretty toasty and had about an inch of fur and dust bunnies on it. After clearing it all off and slapping it all back together the blower would come on and give a slight breeze through the nearest vent but that was all it would muster. It was so tired it wanted to be retired. Not having the funds we'd have to suffer in the heat.

Not having AC means the house is going to be hotter than outside during the day. Luckily we have a basement that is about 10-20 degrees cooler than upstairs so we lived down there. It got to a point where even downstairs was approaching 80 degrees or so. I was mentioning not having AC to a coworker who happened to owe us a favor. She volunteered to get the motor for us. The motor showed up yesterday!

After work yesterday afternoon I ripped into the furnace (after studying on youtube of course). I took a pile of pictures so if I really screwed it up I'd have something to run off of as far as what wire went where. After sweating away for an hour or so I had managed to pull out the old motor and stuff the new one in. There was one problem. One of the motor braces didn't quite line up with the hole the screw was supposed to go in. I was hot and sweaty and getting pretty bothered at this point so I improvised. I made it fit. The screw is now on a bit of an angle and the poor rubber bumper thinger ma-whacker is suffering a great deal but the motor is in place and it isn't moving around. Now to see if my efforts were worth anything. I made my way upstairs and turned on the thermostat to cool......nothing. I changed it from auto to on......It fired up! I turned it back to auto and cranked the temperature down to 78 or so. Glory be! I'm not as mechanically retarded as I thought. It helps me to see someone tear it apart first. I wouldn't have been comfortable trying it without having an example first. We now have AC again. The house is no longer a killer 96 degrees.

Busted Stuff

So lately it seems like everything is just breaking. I understand that trials are just a part of life, but can they get in a line and at least wait their turn? Money is tight right now because we are still forking out a good chunk of dough to a certain apartment complex for a pile of charges. They are leeches. Next thing in the line up is the tile that looked great when we first moved in now begins to get lose as chunks of grout decide to revolt and go on strike and not do it's job anymore. Next the dishwasher decides that it's given up as well. The corner part of one of the ceilings downstairs in the basement starts to sag in shame, and the icing on the crap cake is our blower motor in the furnace that supplies the AC to the house gave up the ghost as well. My wife's car drips oil like a wounded animal. It started complaining that it was low so I added two quarts to help it out and in my grace spilled a dinosaurs big toes worth all over the engine. The next day I have a partially panicked wife saying the engine is smoking. I lucked out on that one as it was just the oil I had spilled burning off the engine. It still has cosmetic damage from a month or two ago when she pulled out in front of another car when attempting to go to work. I found her another route and she doesn't take very many left turns anymore.Despite all the wonderful crap that has decided to settle into my life at this moment in time it's easy to get caught up in everything that is going wrong. The house is hot and miserable and it's painful to walk bare footed through tile with little camouflaged bits of grout just waiting to embed itself in my heel. There are blessings that have popped up here and there through it all though. A friend that owed us squared up and bought us a motor for the furnace so we no longer need to sweat to death in our own house. The in laws have been showing their support in helping us out in any way possible. We have friends that show up during mini-crisis times when your AC dies and that are willing to show you how to tear apart a furnace. Times can be tough but if you focus to much on the bitter you might just miss out on the sweet parts of life that make it feel like things will turn out ok after all. The moments that are the most painful and seem the hardest usually have the potential to help us grow the most. It's not fun or easy at the time, but later down the road when you've risen a few levels above where you were you will see that it wasn't so bad after all. They have things like Gorilla Glue that you can glue your ceiling back together with. Experience is usually only given to you after the test. "Ob-la-di, ob-la-da life goes on brah, La la how the life goes on"

The Vow

So last night we watched The Vow. This may come as a surprise but I hated it! I liked the story don't get me wrong. It was cute and everything, but what made me hate it was how I felt throughout the whole movie. I'm a guy, and that being said I place myself in the shoes of Leo. I don't know how he handled it. I mean if I were stuck in the same situation I don't know what I'd do. I LOVE my wife, but I don't know that I could have handled the way she treated him and remain sane. Of course after watching the movie my wife asks if I would have held on like he did. I lost it. I started crying like there was no tomorrow because just the thought on not having my wife remember me and everything we've been through is not something that I want to think about.....EVER!

The second the parents entered the picture I knew that I'd loathe them. Before they even said a word I knew that they were going to try and take her away from him. I'm thankful that I have the in laws that I have because I know it would never be that way.

I would love nothing more to say that I could have done what Leo did. This being based off a true story I applaud Leo and am happy that things turned out for them. I've dealt with my fair share of trials and I know there is more to come but this had better not be one of them. Life without my wife would be absolutely worthless. I know I'm far from perfect, but I try to keep my wife as happy as possible.

This is one of those rare moments when you get to see a little of the emotional side of me. I'm very much an introvert and keep most things to myself but this movie really stirred up something last night. I know it doesn't make any sense but it's one of those movies that I hate so much I kinda like it. Again I liked the story, but I was so annoyed and kinda mad the whole movie that it's not one that I would like to watch again. I recommend seeing it at least once to make you appreciate what you have.

Hide and Seek at the New House

So last night we had a bunch of family over to our new house before we got totally moved in so we could play hide and seek in the dark. It was a lot of fun, but I now understand a little more why my parents (and other home owners) were so anal about not slamming doors and were constantly telling you mellow out and shut up and find something quiet to do. Right off the top we laid down some rules. After a few complaints we started off. We had a ton of fun. We played for several hours when finally the banister on the stairs was ripped out of the wall. Game over! We played Ghosts in the Graveyard outside for a couple minutes after that and then called it quits around 10:30 PM. Now being the one that put an entire life's savings down on a house I now have a new perspective. Every bag and crash and slam is translated in my ears and I hear a different sound. It sounds more like KA-CHING! to me. We have a lot of things that we want to fix up and changes here and there and we don't have a lot of cash to do it so we'd much rather spend cash on the things we want to fix up rather than fixing things that were broken. Aside from all that we had fun. It's fun to hide in plain sight in the dark. Wearing all black has its benefits :)

House Buying

So for the past few months (for my wife longer) we've been looking for houses to buy. We finally found one (no not the one in the picture, this is the internet and I'm not about to post EVERYTHING to the public). It's been completely remodeled and almost everything is brand new. We started the long and painful process of buying it last month. Things flew at first. I got all the required paperwork and anything requested to the lender and our agent within an hour of the request (most times within 5 min.). I wanted things to go as quickly and smoothly as possible, and they did up until last week. We were supposed to close on the thing this past Monday. Then we found out that there was a complication with the mortgage insurance. Once we got past that now there is something else. What a pain in the butt. We are hoping to close today. That remains to be seen. To anyone that hasn't experienced buying a house it is now clear to me why people, once they get a house, tend to stay there until they die. Aside from the fact the moving is a physically tiring thing and a pain, getting everything bought and signed and cleared is just as much a pain in the butt as moving. We have NO debt and great credit, but these guys are picky.

Oh and another thing, when you look around and you use the little calculators to calculate your payment on the house keep in mind that is for the house ONLY. You have to top that off with insurance on the house and insurance on the mortgage and insurance on the insurance and THEN you gotta sign that in blood and give your first born and a few fingers and toes of the second born in some cases to assure them that it's all going to be ok. You have to explain every aspect of your life to them so they can document it and have you sign it. This is all on a house that is NOT a short sale. I don't even want to think about what a short sale would be like. A nightmare from the abyss is my guess.

Aside from all the crap you have to go through to get the house it'll be nice to have a house finally. No obnoxious neighbors through the paper thin wall. They will at least be in a separate building. Space to put our junk. No more fighting for parking. Me, I'm looking forward to not moving every year. Something a little more permanent will be nice.

Dreams and Reality

So we've been looking at houses lately and we found one that we like. We placed an offer last night and went home rather excited. I was having one of those too good to be true dreams. I was dreaming about the garage and how I was going to put things. I was cleaning my car and getting excited that I had a place to put the motorcycle out of the weather. I was in this process when I woke up and was really thirsty. I don't usually get up at night but I was really thirsty. So I got up to go get a drink. I went to the kitchen and got a drink and was on my way back to bed when suddenly I was aware that I had discovered two things. The first was that the dogs were not in their kennels as they should be. I knew this because of the second thing that I had discovered that was now under my foot. The little playdough makers had struck again! I have no idea how I missed the entire mess the first time down the hall but I had a direct hit on the way back. I cleaned off my foot and Natalie worked on the carpet. At 3:30 AM this was not what I had been dreaming about. The house we placed an offer on has brand new carpet in it. I am hellbent on saying that the dogs are NOT allowed on it. So let it be written so let it be done. Amen.

The Turn Signal

Before                                                      After


So I have to say right now I am SO proud of myself, but first the story:

This last fall there was a day when the wind was blowing harder than the big bad wolf. I was at work feeling the building shake a little. When it was time to come home I was pulling into my parking space when I realized that something was already in my spot. I park both my car and my motorcycle there. I have a cover that I put on my motorcycle to preserve the poor thing through the weather (until I get a garage or a shed, hopefully sooner than later). In this case it was what gave the poor thing enough surface area to allow the wind to blow it over. Trying to avoid the four letter words that were screaming around in my head I got out of the car and went to survey the damage. The cover was still tightly strapped on so I stood the poor thing up and immediately saw chunks of plastic on the ground. I pulled the cover off and noticed right off the bat that the poor right rear turn signal had had it. It's flexible but not that flexible. Luckily I had turned the handle bars the the left and it fell to the right so not much else was hurt. The right foot peg was flexible enough to avoid to much damage and had pretty well saved the rest of the bike from scuffs and scratches and the cover was ripped in a place or two but not too bad off (I paid $90 for it and it's held up pretty well under the abuse). The handles bars were a little bit bent from the initial plunge to the ground but it didn't look too much the worse for wear. I wasn't happy but it wasn't totally destroyed either. I threw the cover back on the poor thing and parked it and parked the car and fumed on the way inside knowing that if I wanted to ride it in the spring that I'd probably have to do something about the turn signal.

Well today was that day. I've never been a big mechanic. I can do things here and there. I feel pretty good when I change the oil in the car or give the things a car wash. I poked around on the internet and noticed a turn signal on eBay for twenty seven and some change. So I ordered one of them and awaited the shipment. I looked around here and there to see if there was anything on how to replace a turn signal online. There wasn't a whole lot other than a little on the wiring. I figured that I'd have at least a couple of bolts to remove and I'd have to take the seat off to get to the wiring. After I got off work I raced home today knowing that the signal had arrived. I had just reinstated the insurance on the thing so today is the day! I opened the mailbox and discovered my package awaiting patiently. I tore into the package and ran up to grab my tools and begin the surgery.

Amazingly the signal still worked but the bulb wouldn't last very long in the weather so I had to replace it. I pulled the cover off the motorcycle when I got to it and began removing bolts hoping that I wasn't going to totally mess this up (I have done things like this before with less than desirable results). I monkied around enough to get the seat off and loosen the bolts on the light, but the way the wiring was it was holding the light in place and the wire was also run through some plastic tubing to keep it neat. After playing around enough I got the wire out of the tube and pried the old broken light off (I only ended up slitting my wrist once this whole ordeal which is pretty good considering I usually rip myself up pretty good). I got the new light on and even slowly weaseled the wire in through the plastic tubing and hooked everything up and then realized that I needed to thread the bold through the wire so I could bolt the thing on again. So I pulled the wire through the tube again and put the washer and bolt on and tried again. I managed to get the wire back through after messing with it for about ten minutes. I rerouted the wires and tubing back where they came from and plugged everything back in. I put everything back together and put the key in. I tried the left signal first to make sure it still worked. I'm happy to say that it did. then I tried the right signal and much to my surprise it worked! First try and everything! This is such a rare moment that something worked on the first try that I almost didn't believe it.

Anyway there you have it. I was so happy that I took it out for its maiden voyage. I filled it up for a whopping six dollars. The handle bars are still a little goobered up but I'll get them bent back into shape and it'll be almost like it never happened.

I know that this really isn't that big of a deal, but it is to me. It's something that my dad would have done and me being able to fix things like he did just really makes my day.