Good news, bad news (more bad than good) at the VOW environs

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I do so identify with @Beckdawrek “bad bad bad” reports!

Good news: actually, massively good news! I used the back pay from the VA for Mr VOW’s reconsidered disability plus savings I had meticulously accumulated over time and I bought a Safe Step tub for Mr VOW! He dearly loves tub baths, and now he can soak to his heart’s content. Hey, I even bought him a super snazzy shower curtain of galaxies!

Bad news: we used up all present and future good karma with that tub. This past weekend we fought with electricity. The “solar system” at our AZ house has temperamental sieges. It keeps switching from batteries to generator, and each switch causes a burp in power. DirecTV reboots, which always seems to happen at the crucial moments of whatever we’re watching. All plug-in clocks blink “12:00” or “88:88.” The dishwasher and washing machine halt in midcycle and must be goosed to resume working. The dryer just stops. That load of wet towels will just sit there until you remember “oh, gotta push the start button.” Worst of all, the AC and all fans STOP. Thank GAWD we don’t live in Phoenix. Our elevation has had temps top out in the 90’s, so we absolutely need AC. But at least we are not tortured by the ungodly and IMHO, illegal temps of the Phoenix area.

The electrician will be here today. His over-the-phone diagnosis is that all the switches, dials, buttons, and relays simply need to be calibrated. The way our family curse operates, I’m betting a gizmo, doohickey, or whatzit needs to be replaced. I’m majorly cheezed because we just got through paying for additional solar panels (essentially doubling the number we had ) and replacing all our deep cycle batteries with lithium batteries. I was essentially promised a surfeit of power, electricity coming out my ears.

Because this obviously is not enough to satisfy the family curse (we call it the “Whammy”), the water pump died. The Whammy was distracted momentarily, because Mr VOW found a store in Holbrook which sells water pumps in our size, that was actually open for business on a Sunday. $400-something, and it’s right after Payday, so we had the money.

Usually crap happens right BEFORE Payday, when you’re down to eating peanut butter sandwiches made from stale bread heels.

Mr VOW promised to install the new water pump first thing this morning, because he wanted to do the job in daylight. Just talking about it makes me want to pee…again. i bought a bottle of that POOPH spray, and I give the toilet a squirt of that after I go tinkle. I would like to prevent my bathroom from smelling like the plumbing facilities at Big Wrek’s deer camp.

The Daughter and her family have their own version of the Curse. Theirs is called The Hex. And a couple of weeks ago, The Hex stomped up to their house, and cast a wicked grin at the Son-in-Law’s car in the driveway. His car is a 2017? Toyota something. It’s finally paid for, and it has led a pampered life. The Son-in-Law has a fairly long commute, so he made sure the car was serviced as recommended, and even had all servicing and routine maintenance done at the dealership.

The “Check Engine” light came on, and stayed on. The car still ran, but he wanted to do everything he was supposed to do. He took it to the dealership.

It ws the transmission.

Everything in that transmission is electronic computerized whoozy-whatzis. You don’t repair it or rebuild it. You REPLACE it.

$11,000

Holy dancing baby Jesus in a tutu!

And Kelly Blue Book said the car was worth $8,000.

The car still ran, albeit with the “Check Engine” light on. The Son-in-Law had some serious discussions with Carvana. And Carvana bought the heap, I mean, car, and even sent a flat bed tow truck to pick it up. The nice people at Carvana gave him $7,000.

I told The Son-in-Law to take the money and run!

What is your Good News/Bad News this week?

~VOW

Is there any chocolate around here?

Update: The electrician was informed of the water pump business, and he surmises the death throes of the water pump could indeed have induced schizophrenia in the “solar system.”

2

Wow!
Watch out for snakes.

Your woozy-whats-its sound as bad as mine.

Here’s hoping you get everything online again soon.

(Man, I really hate when the TV service has to reboot)

3

Just a quick thought about your electrical stuff. Brief power flickers were pretty common in my old house. I got a couple small UPS’s like this:

to protect all the electronics. So a power flicker doesn’t take out the router, the TV, the VCR, etc.

We also got rid of all clocks that don’t have battery as primary or backup power. Yes, the oven and/or microwave will be blinking 12:00, the appliances will stop mid-cycle, and the HVAC will be off until it restarts, but at least some of your stuff will be more reliable.

4

@LSLGuy

I’ll have The Son-in-Law check out that gizmo to see if that fits our needs, and how many he thinks would be necessary. I do have one standby power thingamabob he recommended when I wanted one for my coffeemaker.

Here’s the story on THAT: way back when, I bought a Keurig. I dearly loved it. But our fickle “solar system” would sometimes balk when I plugged it in and turned it on for my first cup. That Keurig died soon after.

So did the next one.

And the next.

Mr VOW went to the little rinky-dink department store near us. (If you’re curious, it was ALCO.) He actually bought TWO Keurigs, and got the extended warranty.

The following week or so, ALCO went out of business. And my extended warranties? Useless.

I killed Keurig #4. I saved the life of Keurig #5 by taking it to SCal and giving it to The Daughter.

Now, I had been mooning over the Nespresso coffeemaker. When I made the decision to no longer being a Keurig assassin, I was in the market for a way to brew my AM caffeine. Mr VOW said, “You like that Nespresso machine. Buy it from Amazon, and that will be my birthday present to you.”

I clapped and squealed like a little kid. And I asked The Son-in-Law to find me the correct power supply gizmo that would save the new coffeemaker from certain death.

So, I bought the gizmo and the Nespresso, and the three of us have lived happily ever after for several years now.

~VOW

(I confess I am a little disappointed that the Nespresso did not come with the young, hunky, shirtless guy to serve me my coffee. Alas!)

5

I’m certainly disappointed in your disappointment, as well. I wanted pics.

(Wasn’t that Clooney?)

6

@Beckdawrek

I think Clooney was in a series of Nespresso commercials; I remember one where he wore chain mail and upset the Queen that he did not bring back coffee to share.

The commercials with the hunk were at an Italian villa, or that was at least the ambience. Young, hunky, bare-chested guy was giving the lady of the villa soulful looks as he prepared her coffee with the Nespresso.

Clooney or hunk, either will suffice, quite nicely.

(And the coffee is wonderful!)

~VOW

7

He did, indeed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoJtjkaEr1E

I’m sorry that you’ve had such a crazy, and expensive, few days – sending positive energy your way.

Good news: after several years of being increasingly unhappy at my current job, I had a very sudden job offer last week from a smaller ad agency. I don’t have to relocate, and it should be a much happier place to work. I’ll be running their strategy team, and I’ll get to mentor and train young strategists (something I’ve been asking for the opportunity to do for years). I start there on the 20th. :slight_smile:

8

How does that work?
$7000 for a car worth negative numbers? (8000 minus 11000 repair)

I have vaguely heard of Carvana but know nothing about it.

9

@kenobi_65

I’ll do a very uncoordinated, yet heartfelt happy dancie for your job! May you have outstanding coworkers, a fair boss, and maybe learn some new jokes you can share with us! Congratulations!

~VOW

10

Carvana is jst like AutoNation or CarMax; a national scale used-car only dealer network.

How it works is they can fix the car for their cost of repairs, not what a shop would charge retail to do the same repairs. And they can sell the car at retail, not at the crappy price the private owner could get from a dealership.

Put those two things together and Carvana has a positive margin whereas the OP’s kids do not.

11

Yes, this!! Hooray for @kenobi_65!

While we’re on the good news front, I retire next week and it’s looking increasingly likely that I won’t even have to go back to irk between now and then.

12

@chappachula

I don’t know how it works, either. Perhaps they employ leprechans who can fix electronic transmissions and they get paid in Lucky Charms. That’s why I told The Son-in-Law to take the money and RUN.

~VOW

13

Our septic system is failing. It still works, but we are trying to be gentle on it (don’t take a shower right after the spose does, that kind of thing).

$75,000 to replace . Eeee gad. And it’s fall in the mountains. They won’t start until the end of the month. We may be getting snow by then. I’d be surprised if we didn’t.

We may have to just cross our fingers and hope it lasts the winter. I can work from anywhere. My moms house is empty (it’s 100 miles away) I sometimes work from there. I can take the dogs with me too.

My wife has to stay local though for her job - Real estate appraiser. Rentals in the county are absurdly expensive (resort area) but we may have to go that route.

14

@enipla

Groan. Septic systems are a necessary evil. Have you had it pumped recently? That might buy you time. Don’t put anything down the drain except what you offer to the throne. TP only: no wipes, no sanitary supplies, no garbage, and especially no grease! I hope you don’t have a garbage disposer. Bag up your kitchen nasties and put them with your regular trash.

You can try some RID-X, a product which introduces helpful bacteria to the septic system to help break down the waste.

Good luck. You’ll need it!

~VOW

15

Yes to all of the above.

We do have a garbage disposer, but it’s only used when doing a quick rinse of the sinks. All food waste goes in the trash.

It’s so expensive because the engineering company that designed it (they are not doing construction) said the actual field has to be moved. And code now requires pumps from tank to field. So, electric work as well. The company that is doing the work said that they will get everything prepared to go, and it will only take about 4 hours to switch from old system to new system. I’m dubious about that.

I guess the good news is that as long as we are doing this, we are increasing capacity so it will handle more people. We should be able to re-cap some of the expense when we sell the house.