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A couple of weeks ago I discussed the travails we were going through with our Dish TV Satellite and switching our local channels over to an Over the Air (O.T.A.) antennae.
Earlier this week, I called and canceled the O.T.A. service. We were unable to reliably receive channel 4, our ABC affiliate. We were not willing to save $10 a month but not have one of the major networks.
We I called they told me I did not have to return the antennae and so we continue to get the extra channels the O.T.A. antennae provides. And we continue to not get the ABC network via O.T.A.
We do get it from the Dish. So, we're cool!
I was very cool yesterday because I was skiing. I drove up to Lookout Pass and met my friend Geoff Fanning up there, who has season passes that are transferable. So except for the cost of gas ($26.00) and beer ($11.00), I skied for free.
But it was not free. When I got home it was time to pay the price in the form of body aches. I was soooooo sore last night. I dragged around the house for a while and then took a long bath, followed by passing out upstairs.
However, I am pleased with how I feel today. Don't get me wrong, I'm not ache free, but I can move around pretty well and I think I'm recovering nicely.
A good first day on the hill!
I am happy to report that all seems to be well with the hot tub.
I went out tonight and it was up to temperature. I ran the pump and they spewed a little water and then stopped. They ran smoothly the whole time I was adding fresh chemicals and did not appear to have any small leaks.
I seem to have dodged a bullet but I think the bullet might still be out there looking for me.
I went out today to add chemicals to the hot tub. We haven't been using it at all and it had been some time since I treated it. Like a couple of weeks.
I opened the lid and the water was cold.
Uh Oh!
I messed with all the breakers and couldn't restore power. Finally, I found a tiny little reset button hidden out of the way inside the access panel and got the heat turned back on. I have no idea how long it had been off and we have had some cold nights. I turned on the jets and water spewed out of the both pumps.
Uh Oh!
I decided to leave the chemistry issue alone and see if the thing will heat up again.
I'll get back to you.
Last weekend I noticed that the agitator in the washing machine was not agitating too much. Upon further investigation, I discovered that the agitator was not agitating because it might be broken.
Susan and I went out today to see what a new (to us) washer might cost. We were hoping to keep it in the region of $200.00.
We drove up to Fred's Ding and Dent Center and found we could acquire an okay washer for around $350.00.
Then we drove to our old reliable "Go To" appliance warehouse, the Appliance Warehouse. While looking at their selection (lowest price $239.00) I got to talking with the guy there and in the course of our conversation, discovered that the agitator could be repaired.
After a detour to pick up the lawn mower from a servicing, we returned home and I set to work to figure out how to remove the agitator. Prior to doing it, I thought I had better run a load of laundry since I did not know how long the washer would be down.
Once my load of laundry was done, I pretty quickly figured out the agitator. I jumped in the car and returned to the Warehouse. The guy was prepared for me and had checked to make sure he had the right part.
They took the agitator to the back and returned in five minutes. For that, I happily paid them $50.00 and went home victorious.
To make sure, I grabbed the sheets off the bed and threw them in for a wash.
Suffice it to say that I am pretty pleased with me today!
Back in November, I took a bunch of pictures like the one above.
It was time to sell Susan's old car. She has owned it since 1990. She was the second owner. She named it Snowbird,
Last week we put it on Craigslist and listed it for $1,800.00.
Today, we met a guy named Ryan at the STCU Credit Union by Northtown and signed ol' Snowbird over to him. We got the full price.
We had a number of people call about it, a couple came to see it, but Ryan was the guy that finally said yes.
Susan is a little sad to see her companion of nearly thirty years go away. I told her never to love something that can't love you back, but I understand the sentimentality of it all.
Now I have to get on Craigslist and cancel the ad.
It did not happen immediately and it was not a smooth transition but I am happy to say that the Dish guy showed up and we have Over The Air (OTA) channels.
The Technician got it all plugged in and it seemed to be receiving channels but it wasn't showing any of those channels to us. He said it probably needed to upgrade the internal software, which it would do overnight.
He gave me his cell phone number in case things did not go smoothly and he said he would return the next day if the update didn't work.
A couple of hours after he left, I was suddenly getting the over the air channels, but no programming information. A while after that revelation, the programming info started working.
It seems like everything is hunky dory and I've had no reason to call Connor, the Dish tech guy.
I must say that I am pleased with the clarity of the picture. I didn't know what to expect but I am happy with things so far.
Dish TV rescheduled our appointment for today but I just got a call that they are not coming. Even though I received e-mails today confirming the appointment, they say they did not schedule it. I think they forgot to tell the technician.
Anyway, we are on for tomorrow after I get home. Shall we hold our breath?
My big accomplishment of the day was making this wall
look like this.
I'm very pleased with the result.
I gave Susan the curtain rod for Christmas. This is something we've been trying to get done for a year. I finally found a rod design that I liked. Thank you Martha Stewart for personally designing and carving our rod.
The squares of the quilt were made by Susan's mom and they were put together by my mom. So I am calling it the Moms-In-Law Wall Hanging Quilt.
We got a call today on Susan's car. Did I mention here that we put her old Honda on Craigslist? We've had three people interested but so far, no takers. If this guy shows up, we are much more open to negotiation. I probably shouldn't say that until we sell it.
We had our traditional Saturday morning sleep in. I got up at 8 and Susan slept until after 9. Once she got up and completed her morning exercise on the rebounder, it was time for cheese eggs.
Yum!
One forecast calls for snow, another for early showers and then clouds while outside in the actual weather, the sun is shining and everything continues to be sloppy.
I'm going to go out and see how much of the sewer drain I can uncover.
In the meantime, we are waiting for the Dish TV guy to call and nail down a 70 minute window for his arrival. I was initially told it would be between noon and 5 today. They said he would call day of to make a more specific time of arrival.
We are making a couple of programming changes to our account which requires a tech.
And so, here at 11:19AM, we wait.
12:14PM: Still waiting.
12:28PM: I just got an e-mail that said the tech would arrive between 4:30 and 5:15.
So I now have time to run some errands.
It is now the end of the day. The satellite guy was here but nothing was resolved.
He arrived about 5 and tried to install an "Over The Air" digital antennae so we could receive local channels.
I am learning that Dish TV is kind of running a scam. They are offering this digital antennae with free installation and $10 off our bill. What they are not saying is that the local Satellite operators that provide the local programming are trying to raise the price Dish TV pays them. Dish appears to be unmovable in the position to not pay more. Therefore, the local providers are set to pull the plug this coming Friday.
So had I not decided to take them up on their offer, we would be losing local channels this Friday. I think there will be a lot of upset Dish TV customers next Saturday.
I have the night to myself and I am trying to make the most of it. That means there has to be some work and some play. I have some drawing to do that actually pays me and I want to get everything together to hang Susan's Quilt. (More on that when it happens)
Yesterday at this time, it was thick with winter outside. Just 24 hours later and it has turned to slop. It is one of the unusual times when I timed things just right. It snowed. I blowed. It turned to rain.
Everywhere I removed snow is bare this evening. That means I am ready for the snowfall, which I'm hoping is tomorrow.
The neighborhood is looking pretty peaceful tonight. It's a night like this that makes me happy I live here. It's a perfect night to drink a beer, make a fire, putter around the house and then fall asleep in front of the TV.
Before I do that, I have a couple jobs to do.
Later: I got everything together to hang Susan's Quilt tomorrow. I got her the hardware for Christmas and tomorrow is the day to get it up.
I also did a little work on a series of architectural renderings I'm doing for a local guy who is writing a book on construction techniques.
I spent the rest of the night sitting next to the fire with a glass of wine in a darkened living room listening to random music from my i-pod. It was delightful.
I was sitting there with only the fire lighting the room and thinking about how lucky we are to be living here.
After days of copious amounts of rain, the snow has returned. It was falling when I got up at 5:30 and was still snowing when I left for work.
Out at Liberty Lake, the snow was more rain this morning and it's warming up. Still, it snow/rained all day.
When I got home, it was snowing and had been all day. I had a good solid four inches on the ground, which needed to be dealt with before the forecasted rain commenced.
So I broke out the old reliable snow blower and went to work clearing my S.R.A. (Snow Removal Area) It took me about an hour and it was a tough slog. I was really worn out when I finished. Heavy snow is not the friend of the snow blower. Or the snow blower operator for that matter.
Friday is supposed to be calm and then, more snain on Saturday.
It is official now. MantleVille has closed!
That was Susan's big accomplishment of the day.
I finished stacking wood and did some work on the sloppy sidewalks and driveway.
Here's a shot of how things look today.
This picture makes it look pretty and peaceful. It doesn't really show all the standing water and sloppy streets. Take a look at the next picture for an inkling of that.
I'm fairly pleased that I made a little headway with the sewer drain on my corner. Since it is on my corner, I am personally responsible for it. It was iced over and needed to be cleared.
I managed to be mostly somewhat successful with that. I'll have to pick at it over the next several days to expand it.
I also did some poor mans plowing by driving my car down the curb line in front of the house to knock down the berm that has built up. I was expecting to possibly get stuck in the deep snow but it is so wet that the car blew right through the snow.
Hopefully I'll get all cleaned up in time for the next snowfall.
It has turned quite sloppy out in the world. The temperature is above 32 and all the snow is slowly melting away, leaving puddles everywhere. It's quite a mess. However, the driveway is clearing and that's a good thing.
I ran a bunch of errands today including taking my mower in for a service. When I bought it two years ago, I got coupons for free service, providing I bring it for service in January or February. When selling me the mower, the guy sold this as a great extra benefit.
When I dropped it off today, the guy behind the counter wasn't quite selling it with the same zeal. He said it's a "production line maintenance" procedure where they sharpen the blade and check the oil.
I explained that the mower was difficult to start. It took several pulls on the cord to get it going. Having that problem resolved was not included in the coupon deal. To be fair, I did not expect it to be.
In the end, it looks like it's going to cost me $30.00.
My other big accomplishment of the day was getting some firewood re-stacked. I have already gone through most of the wood I split back in October and stacked by the back door.
I had more wood that I ended up piling at the back of the house and throwing a tarp over it. That's the wood I added to my orderly stack at the back door. I got almost the whole pile. I will finish it tomorrow.
I also got most of the Christmas Decorations moved up to the upstairs of the Carriage House.
As one would undoubtedly recall from the last post, My New Years Resolution is to break my record of 154 posts in one year. I shall do this by posting repeatedly with banal useless information.
Perhaps I should edit my resolution to break the record but do it with information of substance.
Consider it edited!
I just had a cup of coffee and then I walked around the house.
More substance than that? This is going to be difficult.
It seems that coffee makes me dizzy so I have given it up. I'll have to try decafe and see if that that is better.
We are in the process of closing down the Christmas Season and packing all the finery away for the year. While it is a slightly melancholy endeavor, it leads to the coming Season of January Rebirthal. It's my own made up season where one goes around in a fog and tries to return back to normal life.
I'm taking down lights on the outside while Susan is packing up everything in the house. Here's one last picture of Mantleville before it goes into storage.
Whilst I was taking of the photograph, I was informed that the Mantleville will remain for another week. I am told it is the first thing up and the last thing to come down.
I only had 84 posts to this blog last year. So my New Years Resolution is to beat that number. In fact, I want to beat my all time posting record of 154 set in 2010. Only 153 to go.
We slept in until almost 9 this morning. We had a nice night out where we watched the Seahawks in the afternoon (The Seahawks LOST!), went to a nice heart warming movie called "Wonder" at 6:45, hung out with the Karaoke kids at Das Steinhaus until 11 and then made it safely and undrunkunly home in time to see and hear all the fireworks go off around the city.
Today is the day we begin the process of putting Christmas away. As I was lighting the fire this morning and turning on the tree, it occurred to me that I haven't posted any pictures of the tree. After spending 60 bucks on it, I better have something to remember it by.
Also, I made this short video for all to enjoy.
Okay, now let's pack it all up and get on with the year.
