Random Stuff

Windstorm 2014 damaged a portion of fence in the backyard, mainly the gate...which just happens to be the biggest pain in the ass section to repair. The wind pushed the gate out in the wrong direction, breaking the latch off the door section and not only bending both hinges, but cracking the post the hinges were bolted to. Not bad for a storm I described to the newest neighbor as 'mediocre, we've had worse'. I'm going to have to replace the post, an eventuality I have put off with some handy dandy work with some well placed screws. Until then, here's hoping the gate keeps the varmints out of the backyard...and that the varmints don't test the fence for weak spots as most of the wood paneling has rotted to the point of being not much stronger that balsa. The entire fence needs to be replaced, which is a nice to have at this moment, unless a herd of elk move into the backyard... Speaking of things that need replacing...we still need a new refrigerator. The fiasco with Sears has been settled up, finally, but those negotiations did not involve a new fridge. The compressor in our current fridge is absolutely psychotic, whipsawing between freezing everything in the refrigerator section to not freezing anything in the freezer. A piece of plastic flew out of the ice dispenser the other night, startling the middle Pescado daughter who asked what she should do about the plastic floating in her drink. Due to the nature of our kitchen, we are limited in the size and style of fridge we can buy. French door refrigerators with freezer drawers on the bottom are all the rage right now, but that happens to be the one design that will not work for us. The cook top center island makes that particular style a non-starter. We need a side-by-side, preferably counter depth, criteria that seems impossible to meet at the moment. What we do know is that we will not be buying from Sears...and we have scratched Lowe's from the list as well after the shopping experience my buddy Eric had there, an experience he described as 'dicked around'. Yes, well. Our microwave works fine, unless you need to open the door. To open the door you need to focus power like Daniel Larusso driving nails. There's a sweet spot center-right on the button that opens the door...hit that thing just right and the door pops open...miss it and you just kind of jam your finger. It's just one more thing that reminds us that this is no longer a 'new construction' house. All the appliances are at least a decade old. We moved in the weekend after Maddy's 1st birthday...she'll be 11 this year. So, we are going to have to pony up and eventually buy some new appliances, and put up a new fence...and replace the carpet...and repaint the kitchen...and refinish the kitchen cabinets...and on and on it goes...