Don't Make Things Like They Used To...

We're anticipating great things to come for 2013 - now that we've survived the past 13 days.

Often when people learn we have three children with birthdays in December and Christmas to budget for, they express heartfelt sympathies.  At the moment, I'd take December 'expenses' over January 'expenses' any day:)

FYI - this post isn't a complaint forum - just a reminder that things do get better and sometimes there are happy endings.

I think our first 'issue' occurred the week of Christmas when the alarm went off on our septic system.  Logically, we knew there was no way we could be at maximum capacity.  Nonetheless, in order to get the alarm to shut off, we had to call the contractor who installed our system to come check things out. After doing a little investigation, the contractor reported that our pump had gone out and one filter had been destroyed - both would need to be replaced - and we had only 48 hours (of using water) before serious problems occurred.  Lovely.  Well, so much for the 'latest and greatest' with septic systems. And warranties were no longer in effect.  Not completely satisfied, Aaron pumped him for more information and the contractor finally admitted he has recently had some problems with the pumps on this 'latest and greatest' system after the manufacturer made changes - and wouldn't stand behind their product.  Nice.

 I will forever be a Honda Odyssey fan.  Big time. Too bad they can't cart around 8 people comfortably.  Anyway, I am thankful we have a car to drive but the Yukon battery has been totally unreliable.  Even after replacing it (I didn't even know car batteries could cost $225), it would be dead at the most inopportune moments. Back into the shop it went.  Wish I would have taken a picture of the 'loaner car' they let us use - it was a rusty/blue 1992 Oldsmobile.  Since we can't all fit in the Subaru and we didn't want to drive two cars to G-ma and G-pa M's for Sunday dinner, we loaded up and lapped it in the cushy-seats of the Oldsmobile.  We all laughed as we putted down the road - no seatbelts - free-styling it - like the 'good old days'!  

Later that evening as we returned home, the car started acting like it was running out of gas.  Because the fuel gauge was broken, we had no idea how much gas was in the tank had but we hadn't put more than 12-15 miles on it since the repair shop loaned it out.  Fortunately, we pulled into our driveway just as it stopped for good - part way into the garage. Comically, we all piled out and pushed it the rest of the way so we could close the garage.  Indeed, a tender mercy the car didn't stop on the country roads - freezing cold/dark outside.  (It was, however, a little irritating that the shop didn't tell us it had zero petro in it...).

I'm not one to complain about the house feeling too warm until the gas bill arrives.  Since I always wear long-sleeve shirts AND a jacket inside the house all winter, I knew something was up when I had to shed the jacket and pull out a short-sleeve shirt.  Handy-man Aaron played around with the radiant system for a few days and determined some of the valves were not closing even after we shut the system off.  (We had a similar problem when we first moved in and our garage was a balmy 72 degrees - but it was under warranty then:)).  Once again, we called Sprinter and they came yesterday to check things out.  The guy was here for seriously 5 minutes - and replaced one motor that had gone bad.  He said it was totally unusual and seemed genuinely surprised by it.  Cool.  Another bill on its way.  Who knew I'd be so excited to put my jacket back on?

It's hardly worth mentioning that during dinner the other evening, the newly installed lights in the family room flickered and went out.  That's down on the list of repairs since we can still turn the lights on from the stairwell.

Aaron and I have felt a real need to store our family photos in the "cyber-clouds" and began the process to do just that when my computer totally crashed last weekend.  Hard and fast.  I was determined to not even think about the realities of such a tremendous loss - and we added that to our family fast on Sunday.  Long story short - the happy ending to this one is that we found a great computer guru who was able to restore what Aaron had backed up via Time Machine on Nov. 26 so we only lost about a month's worth of pictures, etc.  The computer is heading back into the shop soon for more repairs (current band-aid) but at least it's working again and not all was lost.  

And the printer?  How long can a family go without a functioning printer these days?  I really cannot tell you how much time and energy Aaron has expended recently in working to fix things. Not such a happy ending.  Since it costs more to fix than replace, our once-awesome Canon is getting the boot!

Oh, and our Subaru recently spent the day getting belts replaced and other general maintenance before Aaron could drive it to the airport in Salt Lake to catch his flight to Chicago.

Next. Darn frozen pipes again.  We had issues our first winter in this house and had more insulation blown in.  Unfortunately, it's been a recurring problem.  Aaron spent quite some time slithering (if one can slither in a full-body winter work suit) into tiny cracks and crevices (with blow-dryer in hand) in the attic last Saturday.  He'd call via cel phone and I was his apprentice inside the house to solve the mystery.  We solved it once and got the master bathroom toilet to flush again after not functioning for a few days (happy day - bye-bye stink).  But now this serious cold snap has done it again - and taken another toilet and one kitchen sink into the vice grip...guess who I'll be calling tomorrow?

Well, if you actually read this entire post, you must be related to me.  The best news of the week came with the arrival of Libbie and Jeff's new family addition on January 10th - adorable Alexander!  After a long and difficult pregnancy, his healthy arrival has been anticipated by many.  Congrats!

See? There really is a 'silver-lining' when all is said and done.