Everything and the Kitchen Sink

The new kitchen faucet went in much more simply than the toilet tank repair did.  Here it is, fully functional in under an hour, including the soap dispenser.  It comes with retractable head (powered by a weight on the cord), a pause button, a button to change it from stream to spray, and a shiny new finish.  The hardest part was scrunching myself under the sink.  I'm not sure what I would have done if I'd still been heavier.  Maybe my extra weight would have just tucked up inside the open areas.  And yes, that is a teapot from Stratford on Avon, Hemp hand lotion, a homemade ceramic bowl with a rock in it, a Marvin the Martian vegetable scrubber, and a gray wax submarine.

Unfortunately, the toilet repair did not take.  It's not leaking at all from the tank.  But I'm getting a leak in the bathroom ceiling immediately below the toilet in question.  The wall is open on the backside where the furnace room is, so I pointed a flashlight up at the water valve, and there's no leaking.  That means the leak must be under the toilet.  At least I won't have to reattach the tank.  I'll just have to reseat the whole damn thing.  I started poking under it already and it's loosely shimmed. I wouldn't be surprised if it's off the wax seal.  My hope is to tackle it before Thanksgiving so no one accidentally takes a dump in the non-functioning bowl.

 

My biggest concern isn't the sink or the toilet, though.  It's that a touched the tube of Caulk-be-Gone.  I checked.  I'm still ok.  None of the caulk in the house immediately disappeared.

Truing

This is my bike wheel after a $16 truing from Penn Cycle in Eagan that was part of my spoke replacement.. When it slows down, you'll be able to appreciate the non-truedness of it more fully. As I mentioned before, I'm becoming very disillusioned with bike stores and their ability to repair anything. The fact that I carefully put my receipt where I could find it in case I didn't like their work speaks volumes to my growing distrust.

Bike Repairs

Back when Ming and I went to Minot, North Dakota, to ride around the flooded plains, I took my bike in for a tune up before taking it out for 150 miles of riding in the middle of nowhere. I took it to Erik's in Eagan because that's where I've been going since I had the argument with a Penn Cycle employee about whether he "wouldn't" sell me a new chain unless I also replaced my cogs. Before that, I had taken my bike to Erik's in Richfield until they gave me back my bike with the front wheel on backwards and my odometer in a non-functional state. Erik's in Eagan didn't fare much better, as I got my bike home, popped it off the rack, and discovered the front wheel wouldn't turn. I mucked around with it for a while and adjusted the brakes, then rolled down the street. Back and forth and up and down as well as straight ahead. Seems an expensive bicycle tune up doesn't include actually truing the back wheel, which was so out of true that my wife recognized it, and it rubbed against the brakes. I trued it up just enough to make due (I'm not very good at it, although I can get a wheel in passable shape if I spend an hour at it), and went on my trip the next day. Ming can attest that I was very grumpy, although not grumpy enough to take Erik's to task when I got back - the idea of having to deal with someone who's either a.) incompetent or b.) doesn't care about their job or the people who pay for their service, feels like a waste of time.

So this time, when I needed new spokes, I took the wheel back to Penn, violating my rule of never going back to a place that irritates me. One strike! I dropped off the wheel, and that evening I got a call from a mechanic who said that a couple of spokes were in bad shape and perhaps they should swap out the wheel. I commented that it wasn't that old for a wheel, although it was true I'd put some hard miles on it, including towing a tagalong, which is rough on a back wheel. But I approved the order. So I was surprised today when they called again and left a message for me that it was ready to pick up and there were two new spokes. I called back and asked for details, as I'd approved a new wheel, and they said that it had been a newer mechanic who made that call, and they'd determined the wheel could be salvaged. I asked, "Why did it cost me $50 for two spokes when a whole new wheel only costs $70?" They rattled off the spokes, the labor, and the cost of installing a new tube. That surprised me, as I had dropped off a perfectly inflated wheel.

They had popped the tube and were trying to charge me for a new one. SOAB. They apologized for the mistake and took the $20 for installing a new tube (really?) off my bill.

So I don't know where the hell I'm going to go next. Maybe I have to just strap my wheel or defective parts to my back and bike it up to the greenway on my other bicycle.

How To Fix the Washing Machine

Another chapter in the annals of applicance repair. How do you fix your washing machine once you determine it's not a belt or something you know how to fix?

1.) Call the fix-it guy.
2.) Have him take a look at it and tell you it's $135 (which is an accident, the company will refund you $25 for your coupon), but that it would be $300 if he has to replace the whole switching unit.
3.) Have him leave.
4.) Run a load of laundry and have it do exactly what it did before he fixed it.
5.) Call him.
6.) Have him come back from the end of the block.
7.) Have him fix it again.
8.) Have it fail again after one load of laundry.
9.) Remove the screws to the top unit.
10.) Get the rubber oven mitt from the kitchen.
11.) Repeat. Get the rubber oven mitt from the kitchen.
12.) Reach into the wires next to the switching unit and push and pull.
13.) Spin the knob and make sure it's in an agitation general angle.
14.) Reach into the wires (with the oven mitt on) and push and pull.
15.) Spin the knob and make sure it's in an agitation general angle.
16.) Reach into the wires (with the oven mitt) and determine a quick yank upward as close to the unit as possible is best.
17.) Jump when the switching unit sparks, remembering it's a two-prong electrical outlet and you're wearing a rubber oven mitt. It shouldn't kill you. Unlike the time Pooteewheet plugged into a three prong outlet without unwrapping the wires on the other end.
18.) Go upstairs.
19.) Come back down and discover the cycle has cycled past the end of the current cycle and refilled with the wash/rinse cycle from the delicates portion on the dial.
20.) Repeat 1-17 until the agitation/spin cycle begins again.
21.) Attempt to catch the end of the spin cycle before the washer hits a new wash or rinse cycle.
22.) Begin the search for a new washer.

Things That Suck

1.) Finding the clothes in a pool of water in the washing machine.
2.) Realizing it's not a fluke, the machine is broke, and it doesn't seem to be just something stuck between the barrel and the edge or a broken belt.
3.) Preparing to call the repairperson and coming to terms with disconnecting the hoses.
4.) Deciding to clean the washroom before disconnecting the hoses.
5.) Your wife uses the washroom to house the cat bathrooms.
6.) All the dust you cleanup has the smell of cat urine/litter.
7.) Finding a cat turd hidden behind the water softener.
8.) Finally getting rid of the dirt and making space for the repairman and discovering the hoses are corroded in place on both ends.
9.) The spigots/faucets are corroded too and won't turn.
10.) Sending the wife to get two new faucets/spigots and waiting.
11.) Taking a wrench to the threaded spigot, giving it half a turn, and feeling the tube inside the wall spin as well.
12.) Knowing the tube in the wall sheared as the water starts to shoot out of the sheet rock.
13.) Turning the water off before you've had a shower to get the cat litter/dirt off and realizing there won't be any water soon because you had to turn it off to the house.
14.) Cutting a hole in the sheet rock and discovering everything is welded together tight against the cement with wood bracings and insulation.
15.) Calling the emergency repair plumber to come in and take care of it so there's hot water by tomorrow instead of three days from now which is how long it would take me to do it myself.
16.) Hearing him say "This is a tough one."
17.) Paying him the equivalent of a big car repair to fix the pipe and replace the faucet.
18.) Knowing I'll have to patch sheet rock sometime in the not too distant future.
19.) Sitting here preparing to call the washing machine repair man, which was Step #1.