Tuesday, January 1, 2013

New Year Disasters


OK, so I talked more to my cousin about AR-style rifles and how useful they are for hunting. And since I wrote so disparagingly about them I researched them further and found that there are a million different things they are used for. Shooters have been customizing them for various purposes for a very long time, and loving the accuracy of them. Although apparently hunters find their .223 caliber weak for hunting, they can be purchased or altered for other calibers, larger and more powerful. Even in the .223 caliber, apparently with a longer barrel and a few other adjustments they can be made to produce enough velocity from the undersized bullets to be effective for hunting.



So anyway, I eat my words about the AR-style rifles. I never owned one and didn't realize that I even knew anyone else who did.


Soooo, I was cleaning up in my bonus room upstairs, emptying boxes and throwing them over the railing, down the stairs. I was sick at the time and not thinking or functioning clearly. One particular box which I thought I had emptied, I had unfortunately not, and when I threw it over the railing and down the stairs a flashlight flew out of it and hit the wall, making a big old hole in the sheetrock. Oh joy! The hole appeared to be directly across the railing, easy enough to fix. But when I stood on the stairs looking up at it, trying to decide how best to position the ladder so I could reach it, holy hell, it was HIGH!


So I bought my ladder in, wrestled with it for quite awhile, and finally determined that I couldn't reach it. So I hired someone.


Just over a week later I was home alone. I had been asked to clean the bathmats and a carpet that I don't recall where it came from. It was some carpet that we put in front of one of the doors. Anyway, I threw them all into the washing machine. And then I went on about my business cleaning the floor. Suddenly I heard a loud CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK coming from the washer. I had heard this sound once before. It is a bad sound. I ran to the washer and turned it off. I pulled the carpets/mats out of it. I messed around with the drum of the now-empty washer and tried running it again. CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK. No luck. I turned the dial until I got it to drain. Once it was empty I tried again. CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK.


So, it's broken. I've ordered some new parts for it and I'm going to try to fix it. Apparently this is what happens when I'm left home alone for extended periods of time - I break everything. Not just small things, but big things. I'm hopeful that the parts I ordered are all it needs and things will be alright again once I replace the old parts. If not, looks like I'll be hiring yet another repairman to come to the house. And that'll mean taking time off from work so I can be here.

This is not how I'd wanted to start my new year.

So, how is your new year going so far? Anyone burned their own house down? Wrecked a car? Broken a window? Am I the only walking disaster here in the world of the Blog?

10 comments:

  1. Oh shit!

    Don't be too hard on yourself. Seems like it's a common thing for things to fuck up and die, or just plain be a pain in the arse.

    We went out and bought a brand new modem/router thingy, 'cos ours was playing up every now and then, and is a bit long in the tooth.
    Sooooooo...get it home and nothing works. I mean, even our internet provider couldn't help us get IN TO the fucking online thing to set it up!
    It froze BOTH our computers, and we had to shut the things down and start again.
    So it has now gone back to the place we bought it and we're gonna try another one from our IP.

    We have mice coming in from behind our dishwasher. Fuckers.
    We need to get the plumber out, 'cos I said to Mboy, "No way you're going to attempt to pull it out and if something goes wrong, we're in the shit!"
    Oh, and our air-conditioner is playing up in this heat. NOT what you really want, eh?

    Sorry for the big whinge... Happy New Year! ;o)

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    1. Oh dear!!! modem/router thingy! That's just shit when it doesn't work out of the box. We had a TV like that. Bloody thing. Can your agent pay for the plumber to get the mouseys? Willow on holidays??? :0)

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    2. Ute, I've ordered what I hope are the right parts for the washer, but now we have to sit and wait for them to arrive. And if they turn out not to be the right parts then that's even more time without a washer. AUGH!

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    3. Cat- We rent privately, and the owner is a fkn stingy fucker. The plumber we use is great, he may not even charge us that much. Willow isn't on hols, she just prefers rabbits. :)

      Epic- Gah! Hoping they come sooner rather than later!

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    4. wascally wabbits! more meaty I guess. My cat's not that interested in mice either....I probably feed her to well! Bugger about your landlords Ute. Good to hear your plumber's a good bloke!!!!!

      Steve - hope you don't run out of clothes before the parts arrive!!! I usually suck it up & go to the laundromat.....

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  2. ahhhhhhhhh I hadn't even had time to blog about my new wheels before I broke the tie rod to the steering in 1st gear boxing day. ah hem. I shall share that little gem with you all when we get it back. aaaahhhhh & it's supposed to be a 4WD. It hates me already :0(

    Good luck with the washing machine. I'm glad you got a man in to fix the high spot. don't need you falling off the ladder now do we!

    Happier New Year.

    PS I could get the external cover off our 2nd last washing machine in about 2 minutes & have it spun around ready for plumbing boy to put the belt back on.....couldn't do that myself....used come off every blood week. Cant do that with the new one.....waaaaayyyy to complicated!!!!

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    Replies
    1. AlleyCat, you just got a brand new 4-wheel-drive and you've already broken it?? What have you been doing, beach racing?? :-) I've never worked on this washing machine before so I'll be stealing its virginity once the parts arrive.

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    2. Yep. Broken it. no beach racing, crawling in 1st gear trying not to run into anything on either side of a narrow driveway. Will post photo's next week. It's ready for pick up & they've fixed it under warranty.

      Good luck with the washing machine surgery!!!!!

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  3. No disasters yet, but I'm counting on having the fair share of them in the near future. I usually attract misfortune. Lucky me. Hope it all works out with the washing machine, I once lived without one and had to handwash all my clothes for two years. Made me appreciate technology more than usual.

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    1. Annika, we aren't well equipped for hand washing all our clothes. I suppose we'd either have to appropriate a big metal tub or else use our regular tub. It would be a royal pain to do. I think if it came to that we'd start looking for a repairman and if he couldn't fix it then a new washer would be in order. This house is a lot to keep up with all by itself without adding hand washing our clothes to the list of tasks. Our dishwasher just last month broke and ruined part of our kitchen floor. I'm on a roll.

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