Category Archives: family life this old house

RIP, refrigerator

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Maybe you’ve seen – or maybe you haven’t – this simple Haiku.

Refrigerator. Of course.

Our refrigerator stopped making sense, too. Thanksgiving weekend the freezer continued freezing while the refrigerator quit refrigerating. Thanks to the Internet, we found and implemented a fix. As we got closer to Christmas, the freezer started warming up. Losing cold? Whatever. The ice cubes were still ice, but the ice cream was getting softer. Chuck asked (rhetorically, of course) “Why do our appliances taunt us whenever it’s a major holiday?”

Don’t answer that, people. Just don’t.

This time, at least, we had two advantages. 1: Chuck and I did the homework at Thanksgiving in case we needed to buy a new refrigerator. We knew what we needed. 2: This month, Mother Nature gave us an alternate storage place called Snow on the Deck. Storing the frozen food was easy. Some went in a cooler, and a few of my frozen market goodies went right in the light and powdery snow.

Getting it out was another story.

But wait – there’s more! I used a broom to brush away the layers that had accumulated overnight and found strawberries and blueberries, also frozen last summer.

Not stepping stones: tops of coffee “cans” full of frozen berries.

All is calm, and all is cool, at least for now. If I forgot anything, it’ll show up in the next thaw. Next: clean the oven.

 

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Leftovers

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I woke up to a dishwasher full of clean dishes and kitchen counters still piled high with the dirty dishes from last night’s dinner. The leftover food got stored in the refrigerator right away last night, but the leftover clean-up took longer.

So I did what I do: I made coffee.

While the coffee dripped, I unloaded the clean dishes and put them away. Next, the dirty stacks found their way into the dishwasher, filling it almost to overflowing. I added detergent, pushed Play (our family’s way of saying “turning it on”) and filled the sink to finish the rest.

With the kitchen counters now piled high with clean dishes, it was time to have breakfast. The last piece of leftover homemade bread in the toaster with Nutella: perfect with fresh coffee. Leftover monkey bread was nearby, too, if I wanted dessert.

The next leftover wasn’t edible, but related to edibles. The freezer was slowly failing. It still made ice cubes, but ice cream was soft and squishy. This was not a good sign.  The refrigerator portion still kept food cold, though. What now? Or, as Chuck put it, why must this appliance choose to taunt us on holidays? You see, readers, we spent Thanksgiving weekend with a working freezer and a non-working refrigerator. With help from our good friend Google, we tried a few fixes and got it working again.

Now, Christmas time, the leftover part of the essential kitchen appliance was reaching its end. Google wasn’t helpful this time – at least it wasn’t helpful in providing a fix. The results of our research convinced us that we couldn’t make the leftover work any longer; we needed to buy fresh and new. Since we did the shopping type of research at Thanksgiving, Chuck was ready to buy. He didn’t even need me along, thank goodness.

The next project: empty the fridge before taking delivery of the new one on Friday. Deep breath: we can do this. Family, get ready to eat leftovers at every meal. Bunnies, your food will have its own cooler. La Petite, take home a cooler full of leftovers for your own dining pleasure.

Meanwhile, I’ll attack the most difficult project: emptying the refrigerator doors of leftover magnets and messages and art work. I sense a somewhat emotional post coming up – with pictures.

See you later, readers. I’m off to work on leftovers.

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The view from my front window

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The tree in the front yard survived. I was ready to let it go, but the crews worked around it. They dug up the street, replaced the huge pipes that go underground, filled the trech with gravel and eventually covered it with blacktop. The road will be resurfaced next year. While the road was dug up, we had some basic plumbing done, too. We had our sewer lateral (the one that was being destroyed by tree roots) replaced. It was expensive, but less so than if we’d done it at some other time – namely, when the street wasn’t already dug up.

And so it goes – the road work provided entertainment in the form of trees and city council meetings, opportunities to both spend and save money, ecological and not-so-eco-logical events, and an interesting view. View? Here it is, folks: my front yard during the sewer work.

 

 

 

I guess I can’t tell them to stay off my lawn.

Just stay away from my campaign signs, punks.

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Could be worse; could be raining!

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After the storm, several pepper plants were lying flat on the ground.

I lost a few tomatoes.

But down the road and around the corner, they were dealing with this fallen tree.
Another neighbor had this in her yard.
Yet another had a tree branch sticking into the roof like a spear.

Some streets were impassible.
Power was out most of the day. We were lucky there, too; nearby neighborhoods were still out of power all day Saturday. We had fans and lights by Friday night.
I had to climb into a garage window to manually open the door. Shingles from the garage roof litter the lawn. But really, it could be much, much worse. We’re pretty lucky this time.

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>Winter decor

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I was watching one of the morning news shows and they blew me away with their decorating feature. They were talking about SPRING and FLOWERS and putting away the winter decor!
Sorry, people. Martha Stewart doesn’t live here. We still have a few holiday items up. The “Dream” tree is a gift from an artist friend; it’s staying up for a while.

The snowmen are out now. We save them until after Christmas each year. Behind the S’mores snowman is one of La Petite’s vases. The results of her ceramics class are scattered around the house; they’re not seasonal. They’re year-round special.

Just in case you were wondering, yes, we have a few (ahem, cough, cough) Green Bay Packer items gracing the house along with the snowmen.
“My” Packers may be playing in Chicago, but they’ll bring their Frozen Tundra experience and cold weather attitude with them on the field.
We’re decked out in our Green and Gold, planning our “eating the opponent” menus, and getting ready for the Big Game. This one may be bigger than the Super Bowl.
Go! Pack! Go!

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>Holiday Clutter

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>Welcome to the O.K. Chorale, our humble home. Instead of the typical home tour with tree and fireplace et al, I’ll show you the clutter. It’s seasonal and festive, but I must admit the house is really, really cluttered. First, the cards. They go in a basket that’s decorated for the occasion. To the left you see a pot of rosemary – or maybe it’s thyme. Both are growing on top of the piano, despite the limited light of the solstice season.

On your way into the kitchen, look up. You’ll see these festive little items. Why don’t I use the mug for coffee? Because I have plenty in the cupboard, thank you very much.
To your right you’ll see a candy dish that Amigo bought me when he was young and a snowman candle. I don’t burn candles often, but this one is in a really cute holder.
If you’re brave enough to venture up to the master bedroom, you’ll see presents stacked in a corner. Why? Come on, people. We have bunnies! If we put the presents under the tree, the bunnies will open them before we do. They love tearing paper and boxes apart.
Even farther into the room, in my walk-in closet, a few more gifts are sitting up high on a shelf. You might notice the lack of fancy wrapping paper. One is wrapped in a re-used bag, but the rest use packing paper or other creative means. If you look closely enough, one gift is wrapped in a map.
So there you have it, folks, the holiday clutter at the home of Daisy and family!
I hope your weekend is full of peace and happiness. Merry Christmas, readers.

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>The continuing saga of UVerse

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>Actual email from Chuck: the subject line was “Erg!”

I didn’t get any housework done because I’ve spent the remainder of the morning on the phone trying to clear up AT&T’s confusions. Here’s the gist of 4 phone conversations, one of which was interrupted because the call was dropped because of the bad wires.

They called to ask if the technician that came earlier this week (Monday) resolved our problems.

No, the problems continue. What work did he perform?

He tested the outside wires, found that there are some problems with the wires. Nothing else.

Didn’t replace them?

No.

He was supposed to as per the previous technicians who tested the wires, identified specific bad spots, and put in an order for new cable. So now three technicians have troubleshot my problems to bad outside wires.

We’ve no information about that, just that the inside technician reduced the speed of your service when he was there earlier.

What! I’m paying for the higher speed and did not authorize him to do that, nor did he tell me he was doing that. Why did he do that?

To reduce the number of interruptions to your service.

(Aha, he’s masking the problem.) Well I want my speed restored and I think I should get a refund.

We can do that once the problems are corrected and we know how much to refund.

When are the problems going to be corrected? When are you going to replace the wires outside?

We’ll dispatch a technician to check it out.

(Erg!)

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>Remodeling the old homestead: choosing the colors

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We had a big pile of color choices. How big was it? Here it is, Mount Colorama, taking over our kitchen table.

We narrowed it down, and Chuck analyzed the choices once again. This was harder than it looked; he kept going back and forth, asking what I thought, asking La Petite for her input, going back to the store for a few more. We started making comparisons. School bus yellow? No.

“Show me that yellow card again?”
Then Chuck picked a black-eyed Susan from a neighbor’s yard.

I brought home a bouquet from the Farmers’ Market.
Finally, Chuck brought home a sample can of the shade to actually put it on the wall.

It’s good. This is the shade.
Final pictures: when the carpet’s in and the walls are done, I promise I’ll share.

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>Remodeling the old Homestead: the runaway bunny

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>It’s not the State of the Union. It’s not even the State of the State. It’s just the state of my bedroom mid-project. Awaiting installation are two brand new energy efficient major appliances: new LG washer and dryer. They’re waiting — in my bedroom. The shiny cover on the bed is the tarp: clear plastic, it keeps the dust off my sheets. See the chair behind the bed? It’s sitting on a cedar chest, keeping the box fan company. Don’t ask.

Last night a tiny bunny named Krumpet who lives in Amigo’s (dusty but otherwise unscathed) bedroom found her way out the door while the carpenters moved the famous toilet into its permanent home. The tiny and adventurous bunny was nowhere to be found. Trust me; we searched and searched and searched. Finally, I shook the treat jar. We heard a thump in a corner. She came out – and then hid just out of reach under the bed.

Finally, we got her near the door, only to lose her again to the safe place under the bed where neither Chuck nor I could reach her little furry tail. If bunnies could laugh, she would have been pointing and gloating “Ha, ha! You can’t get me!”

We managed to force her to one side and Chuck grabbed her. He held her close, settled her down, and with a sigh of relief we moved her back into Amigo’s room, sans toilet. Oh, the drama!
Why didn’t we just let her roam? Well, there was danger for a small furry adventurous creature. If she had gone into the open ductwork, she could have fallen and been hurt or even killed. There were electric cords out, too – big ones. If she’d chewed on one of those, the damage would have been major – to her and potentially to the house. We kept her in Amigo’s room for her safety.
I’ll be happy when this project is done – for so many reasons.

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>No more cash for caulkers?

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>Regular readers know that we’ve been going through the trials and tribulations of a major home renovation. Part of project is a second floor laundry closet with front-loading, energy efficient machines. I’m excited to get rid of my old washer; it wasn’t draining well, leaving clothes more than damp and causing the electric dryer to overwork and use way too much energy. The new washer will use less water, less detergent, and even help use less dryer energy. The switch from electric to gas dryer ought to make a difference in the long run as well.

Part of our ever-greener lifestyle includes energy savings and the accompanying money savings. The Energy Star rating on the washer (there are no energy star dryers; even the best dryers are energy hogs) qualified us for a federal rebate in the program nicknamed “Cash for Caulkers.” It’s a win-win! Invest in energy efficient appliances, save money on electricity, gas, and water, and even earn a rebate in the process!

Or not.

The rebate paperwork came back to us marked (Sing it, Elvis) Return to Sender: Address Unknown. We tried the web site and found out we’d sent everything to the right place, but the program was out of money. Next we tried Big Box Major Appliance Store; we’d purchased in April, and they were informed and told to stop offering the rebates on the first of May. It was simply our bad luck to miss the window of opportunity. No one was at fault.

It’s disappointing, at the least. Do the right thing, complete the paperwork, and have it tossed back at us without so much as a “Gee, thanks for being energy conscious.”

I believe in the changes happening in our government. I believe in the hope that we can lessen our dependence on petroleum products, ease our need for dangerous drilling. I support the work that’s going on, even as the wheels of bureaucracy squeak slowly around and around before significant change occurs.

Watching a positive program shut down seemingly overnight for lack of funds is discouraging – discouraging to an extreme.

Disclaimer: I know the US Post Office doesn’t really use a stamp that says, “Return to Sender.” However, there’s little enough humor in this situation; I thought I’d at least make this episode a musical.

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