That’s kind of you to say. Puppy and I are gutsing our way through till Tuesday, and hopefully then this ordeal will be over for us both. His antic for today was to chomp a hole in his inflatable collar. I outwitted him, though, by taking the removable washable cover off the inflated bit and stuffing it full of packing paper. He won’t be able to deflate that! J
ust… 5… more… days.
Very welcome news! I do hope she continues to improve and doesn’t have further need of a doctor.
Jesus, did you think of just getting him to promise that he wouldn’t have sex? Then you could have avoided the whole surgery.
We’ve had this nearly-identical scenario with most of our major appliances at one point or another. Several times, my husband has sunk $200+ on a part that the machine’s error code indicated would be needed, installed it, and we’ve had to replace the thing anyway within a month or less. Dishwasher. Dryer. Over-the-stove microwave. And most recently a replacement part for our Samsung fridge’s icemaker (this was after Samsung was shamed into a hidden-warranty replacement for the original icemaker, which is a known problem with their fridges). Luckily, at least with the fridge, everything else works, even the water dispenser, so I bought a countertop ice maker.
Our previous dishwasher was a Bosch. Rave reviews, high reliability scores… I bought the extended warranty, and it covered a $300+ repair when the thing was 2 or 3 years old. It died by 7 years old. We’ve lived here 21 years and it’s the third time we’ve replaced the dishwasher. Yes, I bought the warranty last year when we got the new one (NOT a Bosch).
Hmm, perhaps I won’t buy the warranty. I didn’t buy a Bosch; those are a bit too rich for my blood. At least if I have to replace this one (hopefully, at least 7 years down the line) dishwashers can be be found for reasonable price. At least 'till they find a way to trick them out in some way that can rocket the price. Good luck with your appliance adventures.
Ah, crap. The latest update on my LG telly now makes me go through an extra step to get to regular TV viewing. I used to be able to turn on the TV, the cable box and the soundbar with the Xfinity remote. I still can, but the TV now defaults to the LG menu, which I can’t manipulate with the Xfinity remote, so have to switch to the LG remote. If I turn on the TV with the LG remote, I can’t change channels without switching to the other remote. First world PITA.
I hear ya. Ever since mr. romans bought a Sony TV, we’ve had all kinds of issues just like this. The Harmony remote no longer works for everything, just the satellite box and DVD player. The TV remote will not work with the satellite box even though it’s technically supposed to do that.
Sometimes the soundbar just quits working for no reason I can determine, and only the TV speakers will work. Those are on the bottom of the TV, so they point directly at the cabinet the TV sits on and predictably sound like ass.
I just got a new Sony soundbar today hoping it would connect better to the Sony TV than the Bose one we already had - no random cutting out, and hopefully we’d be able to use the TV remote to adjust the volume because they SHOULD sync together. HA HA NO. Plus it doesn’t sound nearly as good. It’s been demoted to playing music from my laptop via Bluetooth while I am exercising or cooking. What a waste of money.
We’ve had to replace almost all our appliances more than once over the years, except for two - the 40+ year-old chest freezer, and the 50-year-old fridge I bought for my first apartment and we now use in the basement for cold drinks and extra milk and such. They don’t have any fancy features and the only problem they give us is needing to be manually defrosted about once a year.
I had a great weekend with my beloved. Then, I returned to my apartment to find one of the traps had caught a mouse. I hate this rodent-infested shithole.
Why hasn’t management called pest control yet?
They had an exterminator come in. He asked “Roaches or rats?” so they have a roach problem too. He put down two glue traps and a poison bait in the corner. That was the extent of it.
Keep nagging management. They won’t bother following up because they don’t care. If you make it their problem, they will care. Make this your hobby, you have a right to a rodent and roach free rental unit.
Time to get a cat. Don’t ask me how I know.
You got lucky. I agree that cats make great pets and do very well in apartments, not all cats know how to kill.
Our Maine Coon - a breed that is known for their hunting skills - will catch suicidal wildlife that invades the catio, doesn’t kill, he just plays them to death. He likes to bring voles inside to let them hide under the kitchen appliances so he can catch them again.
The one time we had a rodent infestation the rats were having late night parties in the cats’ kibble dish.
Agreed! She is a born hunter. Understood that many aren’t. Sometimes she will bring them home live and let them loose to play with later - such as at my first pandemic company Zoom - dropping.a mouse off at my feet. Hilarity ensued.
I’m sure Buddy is a quite capable hunter, since I’ve seen him catch flies in mid-air and he once brought in a not-quite-dead-yet dragonfly (it got a mercy flush). Given his lifestyle before he moved in with us, I strongly suspect he hunted more than a few of his meals over those years.
Allie, OTOH, so far as I know has been a pampered indoor princess kitty her whole life (at least since she was about 14 months old, when we met her). I’m frankly surprised the girl can hunt kibble or canned food. 
I hope that works out for you, but I’m curious on what basis insurance would cover the cost of a new furnace (I presume you mean home insurance). I always assumed that the policy would cover only accidents or so-called “acts of God” like fire, storm damage, flooding, and the like – and sometimes not even then. Did you have a special, optional rider on your policy for the furnace?
On a side note, and vaguely related to your insurance hassles, I remember when my best friend and I were both mere young pups and he started working for a big insurance company. It eventually turned into a great career for him and he became a high-falutin’ executive, although in private he always expressed great disdain and loathing for the industry.
But in those days of our youth he started as a mere insurance adjuster, and I remember looking through some of his training materials. There was a very strong recurrent theme about how the customer must never, ever get a net benefit from a settlement. For example, if you’re in an accident and the car repair requires a new body panel, and the original panel had corrosion, the insurance company paying for a new, better one was absolutely a no-no. Whatever it was replaced with, they must only pay for the value of the equivalent piece of shit, not the value of a better one. In fact the general theme of “minimize payouts and screw the customer” ran like a religious mantra throughout the training materials.
I did not. But it’s not my (or anybody’s) regular home owner’s insurance. That insurance looks after fire, theft, liability, and so on, as you correctly point out. No, this one is an entirely different policy, apparently.
Some years ago, when reading my annual mortgage statement, I noticed a line item for “Home Warranty.” It was about $16 a month. At renewal time, I asked about this “home warranty,” because if my house ever had a warranty (and I doubt it did), it had long since expired, my house having stood for 34 years before I bought it. “Oh, that’s for home repairs,” I was told. “We’ll send you some information on it.” Which they did, and lo and behold, I seem to have a home repair policy, through my mortgage company; although from a third party, which is not the company from whom I buy home insurance. I can understand why: the mortgage company is protecting its investment. Anyway, I’ve kept it in mind ever since.
Naturally, it carries a deductible, which is why, when I’ve needed some simple repairs from a contractor of some sort, it’s pointless to make a claim. The work has come in under the deductible, or at just over. But this time, the cost is well over the deductible, and while I may not recover all of my outlay, because of the deductible, it would be nice to recover at least some of it. At any rate, I’m glad I asked about that “home warranty” line item on my statement.
As for your other remarks about insurance—yes, I agree. As a lawyer, I tend to read the fine print on my annual home/car insurance renewal; and some clients have actually hired me to read and explain the fine print on their insurance policies. Hardly exciting, but it’s a living. Anyway, let’s just say, that when you dig deep into the fine print the way I can (he said modestly), you find that an “all perils” insurance policy has a number of exclusions. If there are exclusions to an “all perils” policy, then it’s not covering all perils at all, is it? Sadly, those exclusions tend to be buried in Clause 148 on page 16 of the policy, which few people trying to read their policy from top to bottom can stay awake for.
Thanks for your comment, and I hope I answered your question.
I had regular maintenance done on my car at my usual place yesterday. It’s a dealership, yes, but it’s convenient and gets me a free ride home if needed, so I’ve stuck with it.
I realized when I got home that I had a coupon from the mail that would save me over forty bucks. I went back today, and, of course, they wouldn’t or couldn’t take it anymore. It expires 4/1; the guy told me he’d honor it anytime, but who knows if that’ll happen.
I didn’t want to bitch to a probably powerless worker, especially these days, but I’ve been going there for years, the whole life of my car, spending thousands, and I get begrudged a lousy forty bucks? Feels bad, man.
Sooo, after we filed our taxes, our tax guy called and said I’d forgotten my ACA paperwork. When we got it, I took it to him, so he could amend our return. Today we went to sign the new paperwork. It seems that now instead of a small refund, we owe the feds 10.00. Ugh, it wasn’t much money, but we were depending on it. I asked tax guy if he was taking the fees out of the state refund that was about what the fed had been. The fees would wipe out any refund at all. He had forgotten to add that, thought a min. and told us it was on him as we’d been coming there for years. That was awfully nice of him.
No. I always put those notes somewhere special so I won’t forget where they are. I still have yet to find any of them.