Broken Things

If things really do come in threes, then we just reached our limit for stuff breaking around the house.

Came back from vacation to a cold house and malfunctioning furnace. Tech guy came out and diagnosed the problem but couldn’t fix it. Next day they replaced the furnace. Spent two cold nights and the $ to fix it.

Then, the washer decided to stop working. It would never stop filling. Couldn’t get an appointment for several days but the guy was able to fix it. No laundry for a week and more $$.

Yesterday we had another thing break. Don’t really want to explain the details except its related to plumbing. Guy comes out and can’t fix it until Monday. No long showers or laundry or dishwashing until then. And still more $$$.

I guess this is the sure sign of adulthood. Own a house and stuff breaks and you have to get it fixed. Growing up, this was something your parents did. In an apartment, it was somebody else’s issue. Now, there is nobody else to deal with it.

The only good news for me is that my wife works from home so she’s the one responsible for calling around to get repair people to show up since she can more easily work around her schedule. Except for the furnace – I found that so I made the original call.

Since stuff breaks, we at least have people we’ve worked with before for the furnace and washing machine. That certainly makes life easier. I don’t know if they are the best or the cheapest. I just know they are the ones we’ve used before and that is easier than trying to call around to multiple people trying to compare. When a thing is broken, you just want it fixed and the path of least resistance is what you want to follow.

The plumbing thing was a bit more of a challenge. Again, it fell to my wife since she was home when the problem revealed itself. We did have someone to call but they no longer do residential stuff. She ended up calling a few others before finding someone who could come out. That part is stressful. You’ve got a broken thing and you need help to fix it and we all want the broken thing fixed RIGHT NOW but you are at the mercy of someone else.

These are the times when I wish I was more of the handy type. But knowing how stuff works isn’t my strong suit. Too many details. I have a rough idea but no more than that. Then again, things like the furnace and this plumbing issue do require more than a weekend handyman to really fix.

So we’ll just get through this weekend not taking long showers. I think the temperatures are going to be more spring like so there won’t be as much need to stay under a hot shower which you know from a previous post is something I enjoy doing.

While I’m here and have a little time left, I suppose I should mention that the powers that be are going to steal an hour from us this weekend. They call it daylight savings time which is silly because you aren’t “saving” anything. You are just artificially manipulating the clocks to fool yourself into thinking you’ve got more daylight than you actually do.

On the whole, I don’t get that worked up about the time shift. I guess most of the world are not morning people but I get up super early and I kind of like having light in the morning so this just pushes that back even more. I guess it does make getting to dance lessons a little easier because I do hate leaving the house when it is dark and cold. Of course, as we transition into spring, the cold part fades a bit and dark and warm isn’t too bad.

I think this is really just something a bunch of guys want because it gives them time to play golf after work. I say this because we live in a place where time used to stand still. I can’t remember how many years ago but we finally voted to join most of the rest of the country and switch time but the debate was fierce and furious. It boiled down to people who didn’t want kids waiting for the school bus in the dark vs guys who wanted to play golf after work. (That might be an oversimplification but that’s what I remember). As it turns out, golf trumps kids so we voted to switch.

Now they take an hour away from us and give it back some time in November. I suppose Rocco the wonder dog would be a big fan because light later means more potential walk time after dinner. Well, time to get on with the day.