Fix-it Mondays

January 20, 2002

My previous entry started out with my daughter's car problems, and ended up with the Comcast Cable conversion disaster. I wrote the entry on Wednesday night, and by Friday we all had packed into the car and headed off to the grandparents house. Two cars, actually, since there were 6 of us, skis, snow boards and all the rest of the gear that goes with a "let's go play in the snow" weekend.

Skiing worked. Actually it worked well, considering that since my knee surgery in October of 00, I had not been on skis except to test them out on New Years Eve, just a couple of days before.

That's what worked.

After I dropped my son at school on Monday morning, I got a call from my daughter, letting me know that the car would not start. With a rather long and drawn out sigh, I headed home and exchanged cars and she headed off to school. After half an hour on the battery charger, her car and I headed off to the service station that sold us the new battery the week before.

"The door fix-it people must have screwed up the wiring, because see this fuse here, it's the one drawing power from the battery."

So I took the car back to the door fix it folks, and they said they would look at it.

About 4 in the afternoon someone I was dropped off at the collision shop. "See this fuse, they read the fuse labels upside down. It's the electrical thingie fuse circuit that is sucking juice out of the battery. Take it back to those folks. "

Those folks fixed it, a day later, and another 70 bucks, because it was some "other part" that had gone bad. All told, that's 700 bucks I've put into that car in the last 6 weeks. I hope it decides to run for a while longer.

Fast forward one week to Sunday Night.

NSR, how come all the clothes in the dryer are still wet?

After looking at the piles of clothing on the floor, in the hall, and on top of the dryer, I decided it would be a good thing if I stayed home on Monday to try and fix the dryer. I had gone online and gotten some do it yourself instructions, but lo and behold, the one part that was broken was hidden, and was something I could have easily replaced. Of the $117 service call, only 35 dollars was for the fuse.

Fast forward one more week:

"Dad, who is going to take me for my Drivers test on Monday Morning?"

Any guesses?

Now, in looking back, there has been one very notable success story over the last several weeks. Late in the year one of my clients called me up and said that since her husband had died in February, they had not used their time-share for the year. Since she had not used her weeks, she was given points to use that needed to be booked by the end of the year. She gave me her points. As it turned out, all we had to do was initiate a search for a timeshare week before the end of the year, and you simply keep checking back to see if something became available during the weeks you specify.

Eldest graduates in May, and we got a nice place in Scottsdale for that week. It doesn't quite fit the adventure category, but we all are planning to go watch her march down the isle.

Meanwhile, with enough points in the kitty for another week, I turned down place after place, often out in the middle of nowhere, because I was not about to cart the family off during Easter week, unless the place was really worth the effort. In fact, my rejections of these "available" properties had become somewhat of a domestic issue around our house. Finally I said that we should forget about it. I had said that either the beach or skiing was acceptable, but nothing even remotely close to either type of destination was available.

Finally something hit, and I got a call at the office last week.

"You won't believe what I have on 24 hour hold."

Expecting another vacation spot in the mud, I am sure I did not respond with too much enthusiasm.

"Well, How about skiing in Utah? I've got us a place that sleeps 8 at a place called "Snowbird."

Frantically I reached for the mouse. Click Click Click, and there it was.

"Whoa, and what about the airfare?"

"Only two hundred thirteen each - round trip from Detroit."

"We'll talk as soon as I get home."

Flights are booked, and eldest will drive up from Arizona.

Yeah, yeah, I know, I lost my consulting work that was about 90% of my income.

Some things work, and some don't.

Life's an adventure, right?