Andrews Family

Last week wasn’t so good for me. On Sunday after a "nice" lunch, we stopped at Lowe’s and they had a pretty ceiling fan at a reduced price. It would fit perfertly in Livy’s room (picture) where the old fan was almost dangerous at high speed. So that afternoon I started to install it. Her room is the only room in the house which doesn’t have an X10 switch. (X10 lets me remotely control the light via a remote control or the computer.) Since I was working on it I decided to add an X10 switch in her room which would give the added bonus of also being able to dim for storytime before bed. Well, X10 switches can only handle incandecent lights and not motors so I had to run the hot wire from the switch junction box in the wall to the fan box in the ceiling. I’ve done it before and it isn’t fun since you have to run it down through the cap studs to the switch box. Long story short it didn’t go so well and didn’t get done before her bed time so I just left that breaker off and capped the wires. Then the suffering began . . .

So after a week of not having a light or fan in Livy’s room, I was excited to get it finished on Saturday morning. But before I could even get started, Jenny called me at work on Friday to let me know that the window of her car was half open and stopped working. So I started on the car on Sat. morning. After disassembling the door panel I found that it was the power window regulator which is the slide that it runs up and down on. I called the dealership and they had one in stock. Great, right? Not for $350. So I called around to a few auto parts stores and nobody had one, so I ordered one on-line for $80. Not bad. Could things be that easy?

Not here. While battling the car, Jenny came out and told me that the washing machine was full of water and wouldn’t drain. Just what I needed. So I took on the washing machine next. I could hear the motor kick in but no pump so I figured it was a problem with the pump. After siphoning out the water I investigated how to get into it. Before popping the top off and taking the front three sides off I decided to tip it on it’s front to gain access from the bottom. The pump was right there so there was easy access. First I removed the inlet line; nothing there. I figured I’d have to take the pump out now but on a whim I decided to check the outlet side. What do you know, there was something in there. Using my needle nose pliers I pulled out a sock with a little pink bow. Yep, that is were those socks go when they disappear, I guess. It was one of Livy’s and it almost made it all the way through the pump. Originally it was 3 inches long but now it was more like 12. Glad I checked that side of the pump before really tearing things apart. Got the washer back together in time for the Husker v. TX A&M game, and what a game it was winning on a last minute drive! The new west coast offense comes in handy in that situation.

So today (Sunday) I was able to back to the ceiling fan. Everything went smoothly and I got the new wiring run and the fan up with no problems. I got everything cleaned up just in time for Jenny to go out to a bachelorette party leaving Livy and I to finish watching the NASCAR race where Jimmie Johnson took second and has a comfortable lead in the championship with only 1 race left. 

At the end of a long week, I tried out the new dimmer for stories before bed and it worked really nicely. I hope that is a sign that this will be a better week.