This week and weekend have not been the best in a long time.

During the week, my dryer’s heating element went kaput, and I had to either get it replaced or buy a new one. I called around to try to get it repaired, and they wanted $65 just to come look at the thing. Then I’d be charged labor and parts, and from reading up on how to replace the heating element, the labor would be outrageous. I opted to replace it with a new one. So I went to Best Buy, and found new Whirlpool Dryers (and Washers) on sale, and two that matched on the “Open Box” aisle. They still work, they have a few dents in them, but they’re in my basement, I don’t really care. So, I walked away with a new washer and dryer for $600, then, because I learned how expensive the repairs are, I got suckered into a service plan. If I have to use it once in the 5 years, it’ll have paid for itself.

Friday, I learned that my account at the electric company had been turned off (see this entry for more details) . This morning, I called my energy provider, and they’ve closed my account as well. The customer service rep wasn’t able to reinstate my account and contract, so she tried to get her supervisor on the phone with me, but she was busy, so I left my cell phone number for her to call later. Hopefully, my account will remain at the same rate, because it would suck to pay the 10 cents a kWh instead of the 7.5 cents I pay now.

Friday night, I also hit a pothole at high speed – completely my fault, and I feel stupid for doing it – although I feel a little better about the fact that the pothole was mostly in the road. I hit it coming off the highway while I was watching traffic to merge. I saw it just in time to hit the edge of it rather than the whole pothole, which would have completely swallowed my car instead of just popping a tire. It’s about 9pm, dark, high speed road, didn’t really feel like changing my own tire, so I called Michael, who didn’t answer his phone, multiple times. He would have “sort of” passed me, as I was on a side exit off the exit he takes to get home. But he would have never noticed me without looking over there. With no luck getting a hold of Michael, I tried Mark, I had no idea where he was, so I only called once, didn’t leave a message – he was ata party.

I fleetingly thought about calling AAA , but then I think, it’s only a tire, I know how to change a tire – at least my dad taught me how to on my truck. So I dig in my trunk, removing cat litter, a bike rack and my box o’ car stuff, get the donut out, and start looking around for the jack. Michael had told me the jack was under the donut, so I look – no jack. Hmm… start looking around the trunk, finally find it wedged under the lip where the trunk locks – it was all greasy, guess where I tried to grab it.

I finally figured out where to put the jack on my car (on my truck, it went right under the axle), and how to operate it (spining thingie instead of my nice pumping one in my truck). Took me a while to get the car up high enough to get the tire off. Then, I had to remember where my lug nut key was (luckily, in my box o’ car stuff), and work on getting the lug nuts off. I had just had my tires rotated, so they were a little tight, and I had to stand and bounce on the wrench thing to get the lug nuts loosened. I eventually did, then the moment came – I had to lift the old tire and rim off the car. I wasn’t strong enough to do this on my truck. Thankfully, the tires are smaller (implying lighter) and/or I’ve gotten a lot stronger. I was able to lift the old tire off, put the donut on the car, and get the old tire into the trunk. (I put the tire in the trunk after I got the donut on and tightened and the car off the jack – for those of you concerned about my safety).

I limped home on the donut (I was about 1/2 mile from the house), and took the tire into TiresPlus for repair Saturday morning. It was a blowout, no hope of repairing the tire, so I got a new one. The cost was extremely reasonable – $135 for the new tire, alignment and balancing. The alignment was $65, the rest was for the tire. Unfortunately, they don’t have the kind of oil my car uses, but they’ll change the oil if I bring in the oil and filter – I have a new mechanic.

Saturday was also swing dancing with MeetinDC. Mark and I picked up Monica at Shady Grove station, and drove down to the Spanish Ballroom at Glen Echo. There we met up with the other MeetinDC people, and had a blast. Brian joined us as well, and he can dance well. Mark is just learning, and I think he was doing really well. Afterwards, I woke up sore, it’s been a very long time since I’ve danced, but I enjoyed it

Sunday, I bartered some computer consulting for handyman services. My old neighbors were having trouble with their computer (major malware issues), and I spent the afternoon fixing it for them in return for promises of help around my house. I have someone to help me paint my staircase!

Sunday evening, I finally made it out to IKEA to get the corner cabinet and buffet for the living room. I put the buffet together, and it’s now our “bar” among other things, but I wasn’t able to get the corner cabinet put together – I’ll get that tonight.

Lots of bad things, but everything has turned out OK in the end, but I think I’m looking forward to a week of work to relax.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 8th, 2004 at 11:41 am and is filed under General, House. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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