The house tried to eat me
The Mrs. always told me that if I did this thing or that thing to this house, it would try to eat me. I think about that every now and again. I've actually been very good to the house of late, trying to fix this thing or that thing, trying to clean up the yard from a year of disinterest on my part.
My house is 53 years old. It has a few issues from time to time that I have to deal with. The screen door not opening this morning is just another one. Here's my day so far.
After a horrible night's sleep and my elbows killing me, I woke up for good at about ten after seven. About nine, I decided to head down to the church. I have a couple of projects (that are going to have to wait until tomorrow at this point) I need to do. I put my stuff in the car and thought I'd make a quick trip to Lowe's for a new spark plug for my trimmer. A new spark plug (and finding the seal for the gas cap floating in the gas tank & reinstalling it where it goes) really did wonders for the pressure washer, so I thought a new trimmer spark plug would make it run a little better. I'll find that out tomorrow.
I've noticed that lately, the car doesn't fire up like it used to. This morning I asked June for the jumper cables, just in case. Good thing. At Lowe's the car didn't want to start but it did on its own. I know I need a new battery but I've got it on the charger, just to try to nurse it along for a couple more weeks.
No biggie, I have my truck. I needed to get some dump passes and a green waste pass so I threw a rotting rug in the back of the truck, gathered up the tools for the project at church and was headed out the front door when:
The storm door wouldn't open. At all. It had been sticking so I shot a lot of WD-40 in it over the weekend. WD-40 is great stuff but not for every application. I'll get to this in a minute.
I pulled the guts out of the door and realized that I probably needed a new lockset. So, off to get the dump & green waste passes, then off to Lowes. They had a lockset. It was $46. If I couldn't afford a battery, I couldn't afford this either. Off to Home Depot. They didn't even have one. Back home, to live without for a while.
On the drive home, I started playing with the thing. At a stoplight, I was able to see what was wrong with the thing. A little bit of automotive grease would help. I also needed to tighten up the rivets that held the thing together. The lever that engaged the adjustable plunger was trying to go past the plunger because the rivets were too lose. Turns out, again, I had everything I needed and somehow or other I was able to figure this out without spending money. I had the grease and I just used a hammer to smash the rivet heads back down. It's back in the door frame and works great.
I'm gonna have to hang out for a while and see if the car's battery will take a charge. If not, I'm going to have to make that trip to the transfer station in case I have to drive the truck to work today.
I'm so thankful God gave me the ability to figure out how things work. I'm really on a tight budget and trying very hard not to spend money I don't have on things, even if I think I need them. I'm so blessed that I had the things I needed to fix this and the charger to plug into the battery.
My house is 53 years old. It has a few issues from time to time that I have to deal with. The screen door not opening this morning is just another one. Here's my day so far.
After a horrible night's sleep and my elbows killing me, I woke up for good at about ten after seven. About nine, I decided to head down to the church. I have a couple of projects (that are going to have to wait until tomorrow at this point) I need to do. I put my stuff in the car and thought I'd make a quick trip to Lowe's for a new spark plug for my trimmer. A new spark plug (and finding the seal for the gas cap floating in the gas tank & reinstalling it where it goes) really did wonders for the pressure washer, so I thought a new trimmer spark plug would make it run a little better. I'll find that out tomorrow.
I've noticed that lately, the car doesn't fire up like it used to. This morning I asked June for the jumper cables, just in case. Good thing. At Lowe's the car didn't want to start but it did on its own. I know I need a new battery but I've got it on the charger, just to try to nurse it along for a couple more weeks.
No biggie, I have my truck. I needed to get some dump passes and a green waste pass so I threw a rotting rug in the back of the truck, gathered up the tools for the project at church and was headed out the front door when:
The storm door wouldn't open. At all. It had been sticking so I shot a lot of WD-40 in it over the weekend. WD-40 is great stuff but not for every application. I'll get to this in a minute.
I pulled the guts out of the door and realized that I probably needed a new lockset. So, off to get the dump & green waste passes, then off to Lowes. They had a lockset. It was $46. If I couldn't afford a battery, I couldn't afford this either. Off to Home Depot. They didn't even have one. Back home, to live without for a while.
On the drive home, I started playing with the thing. At a stoplight, I was able to see what was wrong with the thing. A little bit of automotive grease would help. I also needed to tighten up the rivets that held the thing together. The lever that engaged the adjustable plunger was trying to go past the plunger because the rivets were too lose. Turns out, again, I had everything I needed and somehow or other I was able to figure this out without spending money. I had the grease and I just used a hammer to smash the rivet heads back down. It's back in the door frame and works great.
I'm gonna have to hang out for a while and see if the car's battery will take a charge. If not, I'm going to have to make that trip to the transfer station in case I have to drive the truck to work today.
I'm so thankful God gave me the ability to figure out how things work. I'm really on a tight budget and trying very hard not to spend money I don't have on things, even if I think I need them. I'm so blessed that I had the things I needed to fix this and the charger to plug into the battery.
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