Friday Randomness
Time for some randomness to get you all caught up with me, and then hopefully I can come by and get caught up with all of YOU.
First off, hurricanes and tornadoes. I’ve been thinking of my Florida bloggers…I hope you’re all safe. I’m on IG and saw some posts from Stephany that she is safe and she and her mom came through it fine. CCR was holed up with her cat in a hotel. Jenny was fully stocked with snacks, and now I see that she is happily untouched by the tornadoes in her area. Any other Floridians that I didn’t know were Floridian? I hope you’re all safe and feel all of the love and support from your blog friends out here.
Our weather has finally calmed down, after 9 or 10 days of upper 90s. SO GROSS. Unlike the July heat wave, this one at least cooled off in the evenings, so we didn’t have to run the a/c all night. Hopefully our electric bill won’t be TOO high. We need that money…
…because our washing machine died. Well, it didn’t actually DIE. The door broke, and the parts are discontinued, and the tech that came and assessed the situation said it would be almost $1,000 to fix, assuming I can order the part myself AND assuming it actually fits. None of his reputable sources have it, so it’s the wild wild west of internet shopping. We’re not the type of people who want to spend $1,000 to fix the door on a 2008 washing machine. We’re the type of people who prefer to go out and buy something new. Sorry landfill. In the meantime, it’s laundromat city. When did laundromats get so expensive?
I’ve been walking with the cool kids. I generally walk every morning after yoga and before work, mostly around our neighborhood. I’m keeping my eyes on the pomegranates on a tree nearby. Also watching the progress of the lemons on a neighbor’s tree. They’re very green right now. One weekend day, Ted and Maya and I all walked, and we stopped at Starbucks for a cool drink to stave off the heat.
There is a friendly tuxedo kitty who will come running to say hello if I walk by her house while she is outside, so I try to do that sometimes. She’s rubbing against my leg and I may have told her that I love her, though I don’t even know her name and don’t see her often.
A couple of weeks ago, my sister and her husband were chaperones for their younger child’s robotics competition in San Jose, so Ted and I went down to check it out. I’ve been hearing about these competitions for a few years now, both of their kids were involved before the elder child went away to college. I never really understood them before, though, so it was great to go and watch. This team (The Flaming Chickens) is very hands off from the adult perspective. They get the kids there, make sure they are fed, and are there if something serious happens (one year a kid had a pretty serious seizure). If something breaks, or goes wrong, the kids figure that out. So we had time to sit and watch and catch up, which was great.
Speaking of sisters, this week, my SIL (Richard’s wife, Kathy) was in California to visit her mom and sister, and came and spent a day with me. She wanted to spend the whole day with me, and have her mom and sister come out later for dinner, but she didn’t have a car. So she took the train from Manteca to Pleasanton, and I went to meet her there. Turns out, the train station is just down the road from my office, where I will be going (grumble grumble) 2 days a week beginning in January. So this was good practice, I got a peek at what that will be like. We have express lanes on the freeway for a good part of the way, which we will be able to use for free if we carpool. I decided to pay to use them, so I could get a good sense of it. Luckily, traffic wasn’t too bad (apparently, Mondays are a light day, and that is one of the days that I will be going in to the office) It only took me about 35 minutes door to door, and I think it cost me about $10 in tolls to speed by the poor folks stuck in traffic. (I feel a rant coming on about how unfair it is that you can pay to use the carpool lane if there is only one person in the car, meaning that people with money can zoom by those without. WTF people. Also, yes, I did it. Obviously I would not on a daily basis because that’s a lot of money.) We went to a lovely restaurant near the train station for breakfast, then walked around the downtown area and visited a local art gallery. It’s nice, though it was getting hot by 11:00 so we got in the car and came back my way.
What do you do when you’re hanging out with a librarian who spent a year in Russia as an exchange student? You go to a local Russian market, and then visit two libraries, duh. After Kyria’s post about libraries, I was curious to see what our libraries might have that I didn’t know about. What they have is a lot of rooms where you could meet with a study group or something like that. One of them had laptops you could borrow whilst in the library. The other had some cool art as well as a charging station where you can charge your devices. Kathy took note of these for her library. I didn’t see any tools or bike repair stuff at either library, though Kathy said that her library in Juneau, Alaska does. Tres cool! Eventually we came home for a cold beverage and visited for a bit, and once Ted and Maya and her mom and sister were all here, we went out for a delicious meal of what I call ‘elevated Indian’, because it was fancier than most of the Indian restaurants around here.
Thank you all for your kind words about my Great Aunt Flo. She was an amazing woman with a generous heart. Her love language was acts of service, and she showed that every day. She lived a long fulfilling life. She was widowed in her 30s, and never remarried. She went back to college, and then devoted herself to caring for family members. She lived to be 100, which was her goal. She died without living in pain, which was her other goal. We will miss her and honor her. Knowing that she was near the end of her life, and wanting her to be at peace, made her passing easier for me.
I hope you’re well. Any exciting plans for the weekend? Sarah recently rediscovered the joys of a ‘weekend’. I hope yours is more fun than large appliance shopping.
30 Comments
nance
My sympathies to you on your washing machine and subsequent appliance shopping. Both are tragedies, in my view. I don’t even want to think about losing my Original Maytag washing machine someday. Perish the thought.
I have a very soft spot in my heart for tuxedo cats. Next to orange cats, they are my favourite (do NOT tell Marlowe, who is a longhaired Maine Coon mix). There is something so incredibly endearing about tuxies; they always look so dapper. Sam used to have a tuxie named Madden who was the smartest cat I ever knew. He loved video games and used to push the button to eject any that weren’t basketball or hockey.
I’m sorry to learn that you have to go into the office two days a week. It seems arbitrary, but I know of so many people who are facing the same situation now, including my sister, who hasn’t had to actually Go To Work for over a decade. She is fighting it with everything she has.
J
Nance, I suspect your machine will last forever, if it doesn’t have a bunch of plastic parts. Sam and Jerod will fight over it after you and Rick are long gone.
Madden sounds like a treasure! I do love a smart cat. I wish Ted weren’t SO allergic, I think a cat would be a wonderful addition to our household. And somehow I had it in my head that they are cheaper than dogs, but then I read Engie’s post about her cat’s thyroid and now I’m not so sure.
Ugh on going in to the office. We are in the same situation as your sister. No one on our team has gone into the office for well over a decade. I suspect they are doing a blanket policy to try to be fair to those that they REALLY want in there, but who knows. It’s not like anyone in my office knows anything about my team or would notice that we weren’t there. Sigh.
Elisabeth
Yay for walks.
Boo for appliance malfunction. We have an old washing machine and dryer that came with our house and I am loathe to replace them but also feel like their days must be numbered? We’ve had the washing machine fixed once and the repairman basically told us they don’t make things like they used to, so I’m hoping that’s code for “you’ll get a few more years out of it.”
J
Hang in there, Washer and Dryer! Our oldest ‘applicance’ is our HVAC system, which is somehow still running and is 45 years old. That’s really a case of ‘they don’t make them like they used to’. We’ve had to replace stoves, fridges, and dishwashers because some plastic part breaks and it’s much more expensive to fix than to replace and I feel horrible about it.
Suzanne
I am so with you on buying a new appliance instead of spending $1000 to maybe fix it. So frustrating. The robotics competition sounds really cool! I have never seen one. But what a wonderful way for kids to learn problem solving strategies.
Very sorry to hear about your aunt. She sounds like a remarkable woman. Thank you for sharing a bit of her with me (us).
J
Thanks Suzanne! Yes, replacing instead of fixing is STUPID. If we could even be sure of getting the right piece the first time, we might risk it, but the tech was telling me that another customer had to have him come 3x to try with parts they ordered online, and it never worked, they ended up buying new anyway. Grrr.
NGS
POMEGRANTES GROW ON TREES. I am in my mid-40s and am still constantly learning that I don’t know anything about anything. Where did I think they grew? I don’t know. Maybe in a clam? In a laboratory? What is even wrong with me? The next time I’m in the produce section I’m going to have to ask myself if I know how/where all the items come from. (I just looked up prickly pear and that was not what I was expecting. Oh, lord. I might have to write an entire post about the produce section.)
We got a new washer and dryer from Costco a year or so ago and it was life changing. We can do an entire load of laundry from start to finish in an hour. Laundry doesn’t take an ENTIRE DAY to do. I hope you love your new washer.
J
Engie, most of the pomegranates I see around here are on trees, but there is one bush that has them too. Oh, Costco…I was just wondering about Costco, since I’m going there today anyway. I wonder if they keep them in stock, or if I will need to go online? Research awaits.
Ann
Thanks for the Downton Abbey clip — I’ve seen it before but it still made me laugh out loud!
And bummer about needing a new appliance…our washer and dryer are both over 30 years old. Every once and a while my husband buys a $10 part and fixes one of them. I know our luck will run out sometime, but right now it is just FUNNY how old they are!
J
That’s the kind of washer or dryer I want, one that only needs a $10 part. I suspect I would need to find a 30 year old one though, and I’m not going to go looking for that I don’t think.
Margaret
I can’t believe how expensive parts (and appliances) are these days. All my major ones are ancient, so if they go out at once, I’ll be spending lots of $$. My high school had robotics although I’m not sure they do now. It was a very time-consuming and expensive program but the students were so passionate about it. You have to go back twice a week, ugh. My older daughter’s new job with the state requires her to be in office (in Olympia) once per pay period. Not bad except that they have one car and a child who needs to get to daycare.
J
I hope that your appliances live forever! I feel like the old ones have a much better track record. I wonder if your daughter might find a coworker to carpool with, so her husband can have the car? What a pain!
Michelle G.
I hope you find a perfect washer and dryer! I had a front loading washer and hated it so much. It smelled icky all the time, and there was a stupid little hose that had to be drained every month. Gross black water that smelled like a swamp would pour out. I never felt like my clothes were clean!. Luckily, it died and the new top loading one I got is SO much better!
I love that you get to walk by pomegranate trees! Kk
I’m sorry you have to go back to the office.
J
Oh goodness, I’ve never heard of a hose that has to be drained. I hope ours doesn’t have one that we have been ignoring since 2008! We have to leave the door open for it to dry out entirely though, which is a pain because it is in our hallway, we don’t have a laundry room or a garage.
Ernie
I’m laughing at you admitting to telling a cat whose name you didn’t know that you love her. Hee hee. That library cartoon is hilarious. Our library has a maker studio. I now prefer to sew there, because their machines work better than mine. Plus, they have an emboridery machine. I was just thinking, I can buy the younger girls new towels for Christmas and take them to the library to have their names monogramed on them. Paying for the carpool lane makes it sound like it isn’t a carpool lane. Perhaps it needs to be renamed the Elite Lane. That’s a hefty price to pay to bypass traffic. Bummer about going into work two days a week. That stinks. So sorry about your washing machine. Dang – we’ve been there. They saying seems to be true; they don’t make ’em like they used to. Exhibit A: Nance’s machine.
J
Ernie, one of the libraries we visited had a makers studio too! I had no idea what that was. They offer sewing lessons for kids and teens, but not for adults, which is too bad.
You’re right, they don’t call it a carpool lane. It’s called an Express Lane. I just think of it as a carpool lane because I’m old, and that’s what I think it SHOULD be, a way to encourage people to carpool.
Nicole MacPherson
I’m so sorry about your aunt, but what a wonderful long life she had!
That library cartoon cracked me up.
Sorry about your washing machine – of all the appliances to go I think the worst is fridge, followed by washing machine. Ugh!
J
Nicole, you are right, the fridge would be much worse. I can go to the laundromat until we figure this out, it’s kind of a pain but in the scheme of things, not really.
Ally Bean
I’m sorry about your washing machine, she had a good long run. Hope you’re able to find a new one without fainting at the price tag.
Love your cat friend, tuxedo kitties are so suave. Who needs a name when you’re a smooth operator. The cartoon is a hilarious. Rings true in an absurd way.
J
Thanks Ally, I have a feeling the cost is going to be a pain. We have an apartment type set up and we have to decide whether to stick with that or do some reconfiguring, which would mean taking out a little dividing wall and finding a new place for our laundry basket, etc. Bah!
Kyria @ Travel Spot
I love that kitty; how friendly! It makes me wonder if my kitty (also a tuxedo) was friendly with passersby when I was gone. Actually I caught a photo of him on my Ring begging the postman for pets, and he was getting them. I thought that was pretty sweet. However, our mail delivers vary, and we probably have like 6-10 different ones. I am not sure how that all works, as when I was a kid, we had one for the entire time I was growing up! Anyway, the one guy must have been a cat lover. The rest…not so much (in fact many of them listen to podcasts or music out loud on their phone and ignore everyone, which I also captured on my Ring.
J
Oh, I love that your kitty was also friendly and would beg the postman for pets! So sweet. We mostly have the same postman here, but sometimes there is someone else, and they will listen to podcasts or whatever. Thankfully they don’t listen out loud, they use earbuds.
Tobia | craftaliciousme
No one needs a broken washing machine.
Laundromats sound fun in theory (and in the movies) but are a nuisance in real life, no? Hope oyu find a good new one that will last years.
How fun you got to spend some time with family.
J
Laundromats are definitely NOT fun, though this one isn’t as grimy as some. It was actually very clean, and they had free treats while you wait.
I hope our new washer and dryer last FOREVER.
Diane
The door handle fell off our dryer this week! The Husband tried to glue it back on, but it didn’t work. So for now, we’re just opening the front door with a bit of muscle and a strong grip. Not sure if that’s a good solution in the long run, though. But the missing handle seems to be a silly reason for us replace a dryer.
I love the idea of libraries as tourist destinations! There are so many cool things to see in a library!
J
Diane, I KNOW! What a ridiculous thing, to have to replace an entire dryer over a broken handle. In our case, we cannot find a new door or handle that we can guarantee will fit, and we can’t use our washing machine without the door closing. I wonder if you could get a new door? Or if a repair person could replace the handle? I hope so!
Stephany
Going to the laundromat is such an annoyance. I hope you were able to get a new washing machine this past weekend! I keep hoping my washer will break because I hate it so much, but I wouldn’t have to pay for a new machine lol. Sometimes it’s nice to be a renter!
That tuxedo looks just like my Eloise! She is my friendly cat, too.
Thanks for your kind thoughts about the hurricanes! It’s been TOO much recently and I really hope we’re through the worst of the season.
J
Stephany, it’s complicated regarding the washer. We ended up getting a new washer and dryer both, and they were delivered today. But they need a new plug installed in our wall before we can run both at the same time. So I can wash, and then dry, but I can’t run another load of wash until the dryer is finished. It’s less than ideal for sure. I hope our handyman can come soon to install the new plug!
I’m glad you’re OK, and I was thankful to see your posts on IG so I knew you were OK. Phew!
sustainablemum
Its so frustrating when washing machines break down, that is a ridiculously expensive fix. I hope you can find a cheaper way to repair it. Those pomegranates look amazing, we only get tiny ones in the shops here. My weekend was spent at my parents, I am still here mid week, off home tomorrow.
J
That WAS a ridiculous fix, so we replaced it, which was MUCH more expensive but we’re happy (so far, new unit has only been here for a couple of hours…)