Dear Shopper talkers, I thought you might enjoy this message I sent to my
children awhile ago. I live in Michigan.
Life at home.
I was truly enjoying my semi retirement with raquetball most days, a little
consulting work, dinner out every night and so forth. Then the storm hit a
week ago Thursday. Actually, the week before, while I was in Virginia, the
garage door cable broke. When I got home I fixed it after a couple of tries.
Then the storm brought the snow. Our cleaning lady ploughed the driveway
with my garden tractor the first day. I went out the second day and about
half way through broke the front axle. I could still steer, but not too
well. Then the power went out. I towed my generator up the hill after I got
it to run. It ran poorly so I went to the store to get some carburetor
cleaner. As I picked the bottle off the shelf at the store I realized it was
a nice match for the bottle I had at home that I had forgotten about. Oh
well, it's good to get out occasionally. The carburetor cleaner worked and
then the power came back on shortly. I put the generator away and parked the
tractor in the barn. We then decided that it was time to give up on the
tractor and after a bit of research I settled on a top of the line John
Deere. It's actually quite similar to what I had before except for the
$7,200 and no rototiller.
And then lo and behold the power went out again. The generator, of course,
is back in the garage and I didn't want to drive the garden tractor for fear
it would really break and it would be stuck behind the house. So I made like
an ox and pulled it up the hill with a rope. This time it looked like we
would be out for several days so I rewired the breaker box to get various
things going. I thought I had clearly labeled the changes from last time,
but of course I hadn't, so I spent a few hours getting it all sorted out. I
went to take a shower the next day and no hot water. I forgot I'd installed
a high efficiency water heater that needs electricity. So I had to find the
water heater wire in the breaker box which I did after first checking every
other wire. Well it was nice to know that all the rest worked. As I went
along I had to keep rearranging things to keep from popping the few breakers
we get with the generator. I kept losing half the circuits and it took a few
more hours before I realized the the generator itself has overload breakers.
They, of course, are modern and don't pop out so you can tell they've
popped. Another few hours down the drain. And it's only Saturday.
On Sunday Anne pointed out that the Coy in our fish tank was floating upside
down. As you may have guessed, this is not a good sign. I had tried to get
the filter pumping properly to no avail so we ran out and bought a new one.
It didn't work either and I determined that if the generator was running at
full voltage under little load, the filter pump worked fine. As soon as
something came on it loaded down the generator and the pump stopped. So
after wasting my time on the phone with the Radio Shack guy, I went down and
bought a small transformer to put in series with the filter motor. It worked
fine. This is all going on during what I later learned was a pretty exciting
super bowl. That was alright though, because our cable wasn't working any
way so we couldn't watch television.
Just so I didn't get too complacent, the cable on the garage door broke
again. So I got to fix it properly the second time. In the meantime a rather
large mulberry tree fell across the driveway missing Dean's van and our new
hedge. Wasn't that lucky! I'd recently had my chain saw repaired so it
started just great, but the chain wouldn't go around. So in I went. After
showing his son the chain saw, he went in to talk to has Dad and came back
and flipped the safety bar. Duh!. Oh well, I wanted to talk to the guy about
garden tractors anyway,
Monday noon I went out to put oil in the generator. I had learned earlier
that you need to stop it to do so, otherwise it sprays oil all over your
hands and arm if you are not quick enough. I'm not. I pulled the rope to
start it and the rope didn't return. So I took it apart (with the engine
running) and determined I couldn't repair it. I talked son Scott into
helping me bring his generator in from Pinckney (40 minutes one way). Which
we did after spending considerable time getting it going. After lugging it
back around the house and leaving Scott to try to start it, I went in the
house and sure enough the power was back on. So both generators are sitting
out back at the moment.
In the midst of all this, Anne wants to know what would happen if I was gone
when the power went out? Easy question, huh? The short answer is that our
$4,600 self starting generator running on natural gas should be installed by
next week and I sold my generator and switch box to my neighbor for $250.
Seems like enough, doesn't it? Not hardly. Dean (our downstairs tenant)
pointed out that the gas heater in his room wasn't working. I've been there
though and replaced the igniter for which I keep a spare. We visited the
cottage and all was well except I looked up and my nice sailfish weather
vane was cocked over. The builder had put it in with a couple of nails and
they pulled right out. (He said the warranty is still good.) The Mulberry
tree is waiting to be cut up as are several large branches from our pines.
They are taking quite a beating.
So things are settling down and the new hard drive for my computer arrives
to replace the one that's making funny noises. So I put it in to copy over
the data before the old one conks out. A day or so later I determine that I
had misinterpreted the address numbering and had subtly messed up my
computer operation. One peculiarity was that the clock wouldn't work right.
The Apple tech told me I needed a new clock battery. I took it apart to put
one in and it never worked again. I did get it to try to start up by banging
on it with my fist. Satisfying, but it never worked all the way. So, $3,500
later I have a new Mac G4 which arrived yesterday at 10:00 am. I worked on
it until 1:00 am and again from about 8:00 this morning until about 10:00
pm. It's almost working. I still have to wait for some new software.
Enough, I say. Don't count on it. I awoke this morning to a smell that was
most definitely skunk. Both dogs had checked the skunk out and then spent a
fair amount of time spreading the eau de skunk around the house. Fortunately
our cleaning lady, Cori, showed up to bathe the dogs with some skunk cleaner
left over from the last episode. What happens is that after you bath them
they stink worse than before for awhile. Murphy went outside. In the midst
of all this Princess strained her knee so we can't let her out too much or
she reinjures it. It's a good think we odor saturate.
Are we done yet? As I was on the phone trying to get yet another computer
problem solved I heard a loud bang and a scream from the kitchen. Cori had
been washing the oven and had somehow washed around the switch that controls
the light. It shorted and in a bright orange sparky flash blew the switch
out while simultaneously performing an adrenaline check on Cori. So now
we're off to Big George's to see if we can get a new oven. I did sell the
garden tractor for $500. That only took about 5 hours.
I'm sure I've missed a few things and I think I should not get up tomorrow.
As it turns out Federal Express showed up with the reports I need to start
reading. Good timing, what?
--
Brian
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