Update. Still no A/C; the part should be coming this coming week. The weather had been relatively cool, so it wasn’t a big problem…until a few days ago, when the temps started ramping up. Still cooling down nicely (relatively) at night, but today and tomorrow we’re looking at 39°C+ for highs, and not much cooldown tonight.
Fortunately, I work at a hotel. I’ve gotten a room for myself and my wife tonight, and we’ll be enjoying the coolness considerably.
Also fortunately, a cool change will blow through tomorrow night; good thing, as the day after tomorrow (Tuesday) is Australia Day, and it’s unlikely that any deliveries of parts or repairs will be done then. Unless he calls tomorrow morning (Monday) and says he’s got the part. Fingers crossed.
So I’ve had to -hopefully just for a few months- move into a large shared house, due to the lack of any other options available on the notice I needed.
I’ve lived in shares before, and I’m really really trying not to let things get me wound up, as I’ve only been here a week but…
The central heating is currently not working, so we’ve all been given little fan heaters until they can get it properly sorted. Everyone is leaving them on constantly, including in rooms where no-one is, because hey, bills are included! The one in the room above is on something that resonates to an incredible degree- to the extent I can tell if it’s on if I’m listening to loud music with headphones. They’re not really intended for continuous use, and I’m a bit wary about them being a fire hazard if they’re left on 24/7, especially locked in an empty bedroom. I’ve even walked in on the kitchen with the heater on full blast, the window open, and the (fire) door propped open. It’s like there’s a contest to waste energy in the stupidest way.
Every time I enter the kitchen or bathroom, the tap’s on- sometimes just dripping, sometimes straight up running.
People keep moving everything around in the fridge- I don’t have much in there, just some cheese, milk and butter (I can’t leave the butter in the cupboard, it’s too hot), but it’s in a different place every time I go to get it out. I don’t want to play cheese hide and seek when I’m making breakfast, especially when there’s not even anything in the place I left it.
Half the time the fridge isn’t properly shut either.
The amount of rubbish people are generating is truly incredible- collection day was 3 days ago, and all the bins are already overflowing. One couple apparently don’t own any cups or bowls, and are using plastic disposables for every drink and snack. I genuinely can’t get my head around why, and I don’t dare ask.
All of these people are supposedly grown adults- in my late 30s, I’m nowhere near the oldest in the house. I’m not even especially responsible, but I don’t get it…
Combo rant/sorta brag here.
To set things up, I’ve never been the ‘handy’ sort at mechanical tasks. My father was a mechanical engineer, and was ready and able to tackle any needed repair. I’ve two older brothers, who he raised up to be similarly skilled at all those minor household/automobile repair tasks. I married young, another engineer, who positively seemed to enjoy tackling any new challenge. As a result, I’ve never needed to tackle anything of the sort.
Oh, I ‘helped.’ My help lying in things like picking out the finish or ornamentation of gadgets, moving stuff out of the way so the designated problem solver could get at it, and later putting things back, vacuuming/dusting/clearing away of incidental debris afterwards, and doing touch up painting. And, most important, I played ‘fetcher’ of needed items and enthusiastically appreciative audience of such manly endeavors. Actually wielding tools? Naw.
My husband is currently away at a relative’s house a couple hundred miles away, helping with an urgent repair/renovation. He’d been gone a week, and likely will be for another four or five days. So, today I came downstairs to find our first floor at a not all all pleasant 48 degrees F. Uh. This isn’t supposed to happen when I’m the only one here to deal with it. Especially on a Sunday, especially with the outside temperature about 12.
I am quite sure my father, brothers, and husband would have fallen all over themselves laughing if they’d witnessed how I tackled this problem. (Just a couple of things: did you know that if you don’t have enough hand strength to fully twist in a screw with a screwdriver the normal way, you can wrap the screwdriver with a rubber jar opener, grip it with a pair of pliers and slowly wrench it the rest of the way? Did you know that reading teeny little molded letters off a gizmo in the depths of a dark niche while juggling a flashlight, a magnifying glass and a cryptic instruction booklet requires three hands, minimum? And as an added treat, with vision impaired by extreme myopia and early glaucoma., well, it’s not at all fun.
And yet, I did it! With the aid of a slew of really helpful Youtube videos, I managed to figure out that the problem was that the downstairs thermostat had died, bought a new one, tackled the scary mysteries of the breaker box, installed the new one (including using the scary electric drill!), programmed it… and it works! My house is warm! Huzzah!
I am feeling ridiculously proud of myself. 
As a fellow flashlight-holder, I am in awe! Way to go! 
Awesome job! You deserve to be proud.
Yes! Also, an inexpensive headlamp is really helpful in these situations.
Awesome job, StarvingButStrong! Don’t let anyone say it wasn’t.
For reading things in dark niches, try taking a picture with a smartphone. You get the flash and can enlarge the picture. Only works if you have the phone, though.
I say this because I’ve seen my son stick his phone into a small hole in the wall to see how the wiring was laid out. It sure beat cutting the wall until he could see the wires.
Yep, I get Mint Slices, and they’re pretty close. Still, they’ve got a layer of cream on them (like Oreos, for those not familiar), and so just a little different. I suppose part of the desire for Thin Mints is that there’s no good way for me to get them!
Anywho, no call from the A/C guy today, but the wind’s picked up, and the change is starting to happen. By the time the part comes in, the temperature will have moderated for a few weeks…figures.
Thank you all kindly!
That does look like a good idea!
Now, why didn’t I think of that??? Especially since one of the tips I picked up from a YouTube vid was to take a photo of the wiring inside the old thermostat, to use for making sure you got the right wires on the right terminals in the new one. Which I did, and it was very reassuring. Some aspects of our new technological society are damn useful!
well done, you!
I’ve done this with our entertainment center wiring. I have pictures of the connections so I can quickly get to what I need while I am crammed behind the cabinet!
Over the weekend I began wearing my ITMFA pin again. Really getting my money’s worth out of it.
Ninjaed x2
When I was working, I frequently needed to access labels that were old and faded and in inaccessible places, and the phone photo was the only way to go.
And if you need to read an old faded label that’s mounted above eye level, that’s when bifocals suck. I was forever leaving my eyeglasses inside electrical panels, because I always needed to take them off when I was working on equipment mounted above eye level.
Electrician’s lenses.
I did that with my router box. No more pulling it out and risking disconnecting something when I need to get the info off the back of the box.
So, about two years ago, my school issued iPads to all of the teachers so we could use them in class along with the students using their own iPads in class. That didn’t happen because, alas, the school did not buff up its IT infrastructure to support having all of those devices.
Two years on and we’re getting prepped for Plan B if the upcoming Spring Festival holiday break (which starts this Saturday for the staff at my school; the students are already on break) causes yet another lockdown/teach from home order for the beginning of next semester. So, I finally dug my iPad out of the depths of my school desk, dusted it off, and managed to use Apple’s online service to reset the password. I figured I might as well do the security questions, too. Apple conveniently has a little service called “I forgot my security questions answers”. “What the hey, let’s use that”, I say to myself.
You think that worked? You fool! The service’s name is a joke. The whole purpose of going to that section of the account site is to reset the security questions because you do not remember the answers to the security questions. Take a wild guess what you have to do to reset the questions. Go ahead. I dare you. Okay, I’ll tell you. You have to enter the current answers to the security questions.
Yet another reason to despise Apple.
‘Please login to reset your forgotten password’
In Apple’s defense, if password recovery for a device was simple, using stolen/lost devices would be easy.
That’s amazing. I couldn’t have gotten through half those hurdles.
Me? Oh, I’m ranting cuz … my phone number got randomly looped into a weird group chat. Weeks ago. I can’t block them (only “delete conversation” but it pops back up in seconds) and they’re either trolling me or really can’t remove me.
A quarter of the “messages” are other pissed-off people begging for a way out.
I’ve:
- asked nicely to be removed in response to every message
- cursed to make a sailor’s pedophile uncle blush, again in response to every message
- sent nasty images (historical massacres, impaled corpses, rotting skulls … I didn’t go down the “kiddie porn” rabbit hole, yet) in response to every message
- copy-pasta a plea to start a new group, without me this time, sent every. time. a. mssg. came. thru. (Dozens per minute.)
Nada. My phone has turned into a vibrator (sounds fun!! isn’t really!!) and I can’t use my messenger service in any meaningful way. Not to mention, the constant pop-ups interfere with other phone functions … the buzzing irritates my boss & co-workers … and nothing, literally nothing, helps.
That sounds really annoying @purplehorseshoe. I wonder if your service provider might be able to help you with this?
It snowed yesterday and today. We don’t usually do snow out here, of course we don’t have a snow shovel or anything to get the snow off the ramp before it freezes into a solid sheet of ice. I’ve been knocking the snow off with a broom, but I have my doubts about the effectiveness of my actions.
The across the street neighbor poured hot water on her steps to melt the snow, but I think that probably isn’t the best idea either.