Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Home unimprovements

I have had exactly one home improvement project go smoothly, as planned, without any goof ups. And that was the installation of a new toilet in the bathroom of our finished basement. This streak goes back to as far as us owning homes (we bought our first house a little over 8 years ago)...Hell, I'm sure I even goofed up projects in our apartments before then.

Well, the latest project that allowed me to show my incompetence was to troubleshoot why the ceiling fan in our dining room wasn't working. I installed the fixture probably over a year ago and shortly afterwards the fan stopped working (first exhibit of incompetence). The lights in the fixture worked fine, so there really was no rush to get around to fixing it.

Well, since wood-burning season is upon us I decided now was the time to have at it. My reasoning is if you operate the fan in reverse it'll help draw up the warm air from downstairs (where the wood stove insert is) and help heat upstairs. Yesterday was my mother-in-law's day to take the kids from me, so I decided to dedicate part of the day to troubleshooting the problem with the fan.

I disassemble the unit (after shutting off the breaker, of course!) and take a look. Lo and behold I figure out the problem right away. Apparently the wires were hanging down and were rubbing against the spinny thing that turns the paddles (can you tell the level of my knowledge of all things mechanical? That would be 2nd exhibit of incompetence).

The insulation on a couple of the wires were worn down and the wires themselves were exposed. This apparently shorted out the system. I wasn't sure if this was enough to fry the motor, so I decided to cut the affected wires short (I lopped off from the exposed part up to the tip), and re-connect them (using the wire nut, of course).

After I reconnected the wires I stuffed them all up above the bracket into the housing unit in the ceiling and put the housing back on the unit. Before re-attaching the paddles, I turned on the breaker and tested out the spinny thing. Hey, it worked!!! Woo hoo! I was even impressed with myself for thinking to test it before I put it all back together (hey, baby steps).

So I put the whole contraption back together, including the light covers and bulbs. I turn on the fan to admire my work, voila! I then flip the switch for the lights so I can clean up with an abundence of light shining over me. Annnnnnnd whattayaknow, lights aren't working. Damn it! So now I've tried every combonation of light chain pulling and dimmer switch position...those puppies just aren't working.

So let that be a warning to my friends: Never have me take the lead on any of your home improvement projects. I'll gladly help out, I love doing this stuff and learning...I just don't have the mental capacity for installing anything more advanced than an electric can opener. And between you and me, I've fucked up one of those too.

But as far as my current problem/project goes, if it didn't bug me so much to eat in the dark, I'd wait another year or so to get back around to it....but it does, so I won't. So fret not Allison, we'll have light in the dining room soon enough. Maybe next week. But until then, at least we'll be warm while eating in darkness.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Soggy Homes & Broken Bones

Imagine the suckiest weekend you've ever had. Got it? Yeah, this last weekend ranks up there with yours. In fact, if we had a weekend 'suck-off' I'm not sure who would win. Wait. That just sounds so wrong and not the way I meant it to. I think it's best if we just move on.....

So Friday evening after dinner we were upstairs playing with the kids and for some reason I can't recall I went down to the basement (which is finished) and heard a dripping sound. I opened up the door that separates the boiler room from the rest of the finished basement and lo and behold there is standing water covering the floor. I just stood there for a second, mumbled an obscenity, shut the door and went upstairs as I just had no desire to deal with it at that exact moment.

Obviously I wasn't going to put it off, but the kids' bedtime was quickly approaching and it would be smarter to take care of it after they were asleep than to deal with the two rugrats wanting to help and splash the water all over our 8 week old rug (which by the way was already wet the first 12" past the door and wall).

We cleared out the room, sucked up the water with the wet/dry vac and called our oil company. The service guy was there in less than 45min and showed me the problem. He said he really couldn't do anything to fix it, as it could very well just make the problem worse. Allison and I had a little pow-wow and decided that we should just shut down the boiler and drain it out.

Well, that's not entirely true. There was no little pow-wow. As the guy was showing me what valves to turn, buttons to push and gauge limits to keep an eye on in case the drip worsened, Allison yelled from across the room to just shut it down and drain it out. Yep, she made the executive decision all by her lonesome. She knows better than to trust me to keep a watchful eye on valves, gauges and buttons! Our (Allison's) rationale was that since the weather was forcasted to be really warm, we'd be able to get by without heat or hot water so we (she) decided to just quit while we were ahead and turn it off.

So the service guy did that and all was well & good. So it was our intention to stay in the house until a new boiler was put in, but as you'll learn in the next part, that was not to be the case. But as far as the rest of the story that pertains to the boiler goes: I met the owner of the company at our house late Monday morning and he gave us an estimate to put in a new one, which they did on Tuesday.

We didn't want to go top of the line as we're intending to sell the house, but we didn't want to get something inappropriate for the house in case we're here longer than anticipated. Besides, it just wouldn't be right. So we are the proud owners of a 3 section cast-iron tankless boiler with an efficiency rating of 86.2%. Booyah.

We were considering a trip back to Disney either the end of November or beginning of December but dropping close to five large on this thing was the nail in that coffin. Good thing we didn't tell the kids our plans. Imagine their disappointment if we had told them, and then trying to get away with taking souvenier photos of them on top of the boiler and pretending it's the Dumbo ride. I think even Leah is old enough to know she was getting conned.

Probably the best part of this is that so far it doesn't look like we'll have to replace the rug in the basement. Only time will tell, but I think we're in the clear.

So that is Part A of the beginning of that Sucktober weekend.

Part B begins Saturday afternoon at a birthday party for one of Ian's friends. The party started at 1pm and Allison had some errands to run, so I took the kids to the party and she was to meet us there later.

As we pull up Ian spies the bounce house in the back yard. He gets all giddy and wants to unbuckle his seatbelt before we even stop the car. We go into the back yard and he makes a beeline for the bounce house, running by the birthday girl and her mom just kicking his shoes off and leaving a trail of shoes, socks & a sweatshirt.

Ian was in there pretty much the whole first two hours. I got him to come out for about 5 minutes for lunch, but he showed no interest in eating (his M.O. lately). He wanted to do whatever the bigger/older boys were doing and that usually meant jumping around in the bounce house.

Around 3:00 I left to take Leah home for a late, but much needed nap. Well, Allison called me around 4:30 and immediately I could hear Ian screaming. She told me that she said that he got hurt and was going directly to the local H-O-S-P-I-T-A-L, spelling it out so Ian didn't understand her. Yeah, that plan didn't work because he did and it freaked him out even more than he already was. (He said he didn't want to go, and wanted to go directly home, but of course Allison knew that something major was wrong).

I woke Leah up and met them at the hospital. When I got there, they were just wheeling Ian out of the triage room and he wasn't crying at the time but it looked like he had been....alot. And he began crying as soon as he saw me and asked for hugs.

We all went to the waiting room to wait to be called for x-rays and Ian zoned out in front of the TV before finally falling asleep. Here he is, after his body just shut down on him. Poor little guy, look how puffy his eyes are!:




After a little while Ian woke up and we were finally called in for x-rays. I recognized some of the ER nurses from bringing in patients on the ambulance so a few of them went out of their way to help out in the x ray room maneuvering Ian into position and helping to try to keep him as calm as possible. He still was crying, but it was more out of nervousness of being hurt further rather than pain from the movements. Every time he started crying I asked if it was because he was hurt or because he was scared, and more often than not he was scared.

At some point it was like a switch was flipped. He calmed down completely and got his 'personality' back. We moved him onto the stretcher, after the x-ray techs saw the break in Ian's bone, thinking it would be more comfortable than the wheelchair. Ian didn't object, because he looked mighty comfy once he finally layed down.

He was wheeled into a room in the ER and we began our wait for the orthopedist, who was on-call but not in the hospital. Allison's sister, Melissa, came and got Leah and brought her back to their parent's house which was nice. Now we could focus on Ian and not deal with Leah's antics. Yes, Leah does have antics.

After awhile Ian was able to really calm down and settle in and eventually he fell asleep. When the orthopedist (a PA in this case) finally came in, we tried to wake Ian up, but no dice. He told us that Ian fractured his tibia high up, right below the head of the bone. He said it didn't affect the growth plate (which is great, obviously), and that he'll be in a cast for 6-8 weeks (which is not so great, obviously).

Since the ER was so busy, and Ian was sacked out cold, the PA asked for Allison and my help in wrapping up Ian in a full leg cast. Oh, good job, Honey! No one can hold toes like you! The PA said that it was the first time a patient had been asleep the entire time. He has had people fall asleep, but not be asleep when he got there and asleep when he left. Yeah, waking up at 5am and being in a bounce house for several hours and then crying for another hour plus will do that to ya.

Here is Ian after his cast hardened, right before we left the hospital.


So we left the hospital and went right to Allison's parents house and stayed there the night. Since we had no heat or hot water, and they have a big house AND heat & hot water we decided to stay there for awhile.

We were told to keep Ian off his feet (duh!), and just let him relax on the sofa. Uh, have you MET Ian? If there is one thing Ian doesn't do is relax. As a matter of fact, I've seen Ian TRY to relax and it is painful watching him because he looks so uncomfortable. So anyway over the next few days he got lots of TV time, which he loved.

On Tuesday we went to the pediatric hospital and had the experts take a look at his leg. The prognosis is that he'll be in his cast for 4 weeks (not the 6-8 as previously reported) and at which point more xrays will be taken to see how the bone has healed. The next course of action obviously depends on that.

I've been trying to keep Ian busy with crafts and stuff, but he hates that shit. We had fun putting together a little model Star Wars spaceship and a little birdhouse but you can tell he is just barely tolerating it. He's a tough kid, but I think he's going to die of boredom! We've been holding off on getting him any electronic gaming thing (like a gameboy), as we feel once he has that he won't want to do anything else...but I think he'll have one before the cast comes off. Although I still want to hold out for as long as possible.

As far as transportation goes, I've been lugging him around in our wagon, as my only other option has been to carry him. That seems to work, but it gets a little hectic while in parking lots and such where I also have to worry about Leah (she won't fit in the wagon with his club leg) especially if I need to carry any kind of bags or something.

The doctor said he could try to get around on his own, he just couldn't run or climb anything. Well, the way his leg is positioned, he definitely isn't doing any running. He hadn't wanted to attempt any movement on his own (and was content with me carrying him everywhere) until yesterday. He hobbled around a little (with assistance) and this morning he got out of bed, butt-scooted down the hallway and made it all the way downstairs without waking anyone up. So I'm glad to see he is figuring out alternate modes of transportation.

He is back at school and while he's bummed about not being able to run around with his classmates, he likes the attention that the cast brings. On Wednesday afterschool he just sat in his wagon while a few of his classmates had at his cast with some permanent markers:





So we're getting along okay, and hopefully these next 3.5 or so weeks pass by rather quickly. I wanted to go out the past two days, but Ian has been complaining of pain in his leg (which he hadn't done before yesterday) so we've been pretty much stuck in the house.

I called the doctor yesterday and they said that as long as his prescribed pain meds were helping to alleviate the pain then it isn't a problem. We're not giving him the medicine (Tylenol w/Codeine) unless he's in pain or at night, to help ensure a good night's rest.

Well, I think that about sums up the weekend. Sorry if this has been so disjointed. I've been working on it over a few nights so I couldn't get into my 'groove'. There is other stuff to tell, but it's getting late and I'm beat.

Cheers.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Karma gonna git cha!!

I was talking to a neighbor of ours yesterday and SHE was talking to a neighbor of hers earlier in the day and said that SHE heard something horrible happened on our block. Yeah, I was all ears too!

She said that someone on the adjoining street tied up her little dog to the front stoop and took out her trash the last trash day. She brought her trash to the curb, turned around and saw a coyote attack her dog, going right for the throat. The coyote grabbed the pipsqueak and headed off into the woods with it.

Oh man, I am giddy with joy here!! If you don't know why, see my blog from June 13, 2007. I was about to recap it, but I figured I'd let those who don't know 'the backstory' do a little leg work. I don't know for sure if it's one of HER dogs, but I'm praying like mad that it is. How great would that be if that stupid fuck knuckle saw her dog get ripped apart by a coyote??? That would be some serious Karma in action. I need to dig a little into this and get confirmation, but know that I'll be going to bed a little happier tonight just thinking that she'll play that sight over and over in her mind for the rest of her miserable life.

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BTW, I was just going to blog about the status update of the whole house situation, but it was getting very lengthy and boring, so I stopped. Hopefully Allison will make it sound more interesting in her blog (gee, no pressure, huh Allison?). The short, short version is: we put an offer on a house, but we got bumped. Go ahead Babs, fill in the gaps.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

11 Weeks

That's how long it took Ian to realize that Dupree isn't around.

He finally asked about her this morning, and I kind of deflected it because he had school in a little bit so I didn't want to get into the whole thing. I just said "I don't know, I haven't seen her" and then brought up something else.

Ian asked Allison where Dupree was, then Allison gave me the look as in "well, he finally asked" and then went into how she ran away. You could see Ian's eyes begin to redden and well up and his lip started quivering. He was really upset about it, which was sad to see of course.

He was sad because Dupree was all alone, or dead. He was sad because she wants to be out in the woods (either alone or with other cats) rather than in the house with us. And he was sad because she may be with another family, when she belongs to us.

He really misses her and he desperately wants me to take him in the woods behind our house to look for her. Does he want to do it conventionally like any normal 4 year old? Oh no.

He doesn't want to go back there shouting her name and looking for her. He wants us to go back there, find her tracks and follow them to where she is. Oh dude, how the hell am I gonna pull this off? Hopefully we'll come quickly upon a pile of furry coyote shit and have closure right then and there.

So anyway Ian said on the way to school that he was going to tell his friends and his teachers all about it. I already pictured picking him up after school and seeing 12 4yr olds crying over an elderly cat with a poor sense of direction. I was able to forewarn Ian's teacher and she appreciated it since she is often told stories by the kids and she doesn't have the foggiest as to what they're talking about.

When I went to pick Ian up, he was in a great mood which was a good sign. There was also no evidence of other kids crying or any candlelight vigils that might have taken place in the past 2.5hrs.

One funny thing that I noticed was that apparently they have a 'class news' segment in school. Every kid has an opportunity to tell what's going on with them and the teacher writes it down on a big notepad for the class. (Why they do that, I don't know since the kids can't read...but whatever). But I noticed that for Ian it said

Ian: Ian's cat, Dupree ran away into the woods. Ian can also burp his ABC's.

Well okay, then.