Valentine’s Day Crawfish! Yummmmm…
Love bugs.
Valentine’s Day Crawfish! Yummmmm…
Tag: life
Friday fun.
Michael & Amber gifted us several tickets to see an Austin band with them and a bunch of their friends tonight, Extreme Heat. They are a self-described funk and soul band that’s been playing in Austin since 1977. And they are one of the Austin Music Award nominees for Hall of Fame artist this year. I really enjoyed the show. They were great! We asked Mike and Joel to join the party as well. Nice venue, great tunes, a little dancing. Very nice.
From leaky to squeaky clean.
Several months ago, I noticed water leaking from our 10-year old GE front-load washing machine while doing a load of laundry. Upon inspection, I saw that a little piece of the rubber seal between the drum and the door had been torn away.
For a while, a temporary repair involving tape worked. But the leak returned and eventually got worse.
After a little internet research, I found and ordered a replacement part – a new rubber door gasket – and found a couple of videos walking through how to replace it step by step. I suggest watching more than one, as each one highlights slightly different things. These are the 2 videos I found. I decided to give it a shot.
The part came in last week, so today was the day to install it! The videos are only about 15 minutes long. My total elapsed repair time was around 3 hours, though, which included collecting the tools I needed, moving the washer out to where I could work on it, cleaning everything as I went, and playing/pausing both videos as I proceeded from one step to the next.
The patient, with new door gasket sitting on top of the machine:
While the videos say the repair is an easy one, it does require you to disassemble much of the machine, or at least more than I thought would fall into the “easy” category.
New door gasket part-way installed!
I think it went pretty much as the videos showed. Removing and reattaching the second clamp was not as easy as the videos made it look, but I went very, very slowly and it eventually worked out fine. I’m doing the first post-repair load of laundry as I write this, and I don’t see as much as a drop of water on the floor. Thank God.
The machine is fixed, it’s clean inside and out, and I finally leveled the washer after ten years of having it wobble a bit. Bonus!
Powers of 10.
Some stats from yesterday:
The Subaru turned 100,000 miles.
And we loaded another 1,000 lbs of rock into the trailer. It’s much nicer to do in the winter than in the dead of summer. We’re getting closer to our goal of removing the river rock from the beds around the house.
Susanne is visiting us this week and she has been a big help as we knock off some of our yard projects.
Leaf me alone!
I truly enjoy the trees in our yard. But, there are many of them, and they collectively drop billions and gazillions of leaves every year. Over the last day or two, we raked and scooped up 5 or more trailer-loads of those bad boys – a good workout. Our new pile-o-leaves (and future garden soil):
I can’t complain though. It has been lovely outside. Today the temps were close to 70 degrees F. Thankfully, cedar pollen levels are below the threshold that triggers my allergies. As I sit here, sore and tired, I’m sipping a glass of wine listening to the news guys report on the cold and snowy weather up north. Yeah, I’ll take yard work in the winter in Austin over that any day.
On the move.
This weekend brought Julie back to Texas! 🙂 But, it was only to pack up the contents of a couple of storage units into a U-Haul and head right back to Washington. 😦 She has a great new job up there.
Though I’m sad to see her go, I think Texas has a way of calling one back, after a while, so I’ll keep hoping. Bon voyage! I pray that Mother Nature takes it easy on them over the next few days as they make their way through the mountains.
Progress on the homefront.
The bathroom remodel continues. Monte has finished the cabinets and they look great. Next step: wall paint.
I love being in the queue!
Birdies!
Noreen is here for a visit. She brought me another beautiful stained glass panel that she made. I love it! She’s so talented at making them. Lucky me!
Pop.
After dinner tonight the power went out on our block with a “pop.” We have a dozen or so candles lit. Old school tonight at the chez. 🙂
Lofty goals.
We brought home the jib from Nirvana. It has several tears and wear that needs some TLC. I’m setting out to mend this 42′ x 17′ triangular mass of Dacron. Who will win? Stay tuned.
Companions’ cover.
I think I’m on a roll with this boat canvas thing. I made a companionway cover for Marty & Sue’s boat. I love the color. It’s insulated, with a layer of Reflectix between two layers of marine Sunbrella. Stitching it was a bit like wrestling a bear at times, but my new machine handled it well. 🙂
In the belly of the beast.
I spent today and another day last weekend sitting in the bottom of our port-side lazerette at the stern of the boat. We lost the electronic control unit of our auto helm in a lightening strike at the marina earlier this year. We got off easy; a neighboring boat’s electronics repairs from the same strike is over $80K and counting. Marty gave us a unit that he used to have on their boat. We installed it over the course of the last two weeks. Lots of pulling of cables through tiny stainless steel tubing, making new electric connections, and squeezing into small spaces.
Marty and Sue accompanied us on the calibration run. Everything worked! It’s nice to have Otto back.
In the closet.
Two projects on the long to-do list that I made when I retired were:
1) purge 30 years of paperwork and de-crap the rest of the mess in the closet in my office, and
2) create a workspace in my office closet for my projects like sewing, painting, knitting, beading, photo scanning & editing, etc.
I’m ecstatic to report that I’m crossing them both off today!
I didn’t get a truly before pic. But this is a during pic (all this crap previously filled the closet).
And, (drumroll) this is the after pic:
Many thanks to Monte for building and installing my new desk!
Now I just need to shred the boxes of purged papers and documents…
Transported.
We are watching the latest Ken Burns multipart documentary on PBS, Country Music. I think it’s great. I love the music, and the walk through time.
The episode on Hank Williams dusted off some cobwebs for me. I have strong memories from my childhood – including listening to my dad play Hank Williams albums on his record player at night, often with the lights in the living room turned off.
I couldn’t resist playing some of the same albums on my iPod tonight. And I just had to flick the lights off. I was immediately transported to my old home many decades ago, and memories associated with that time resurfaced.
Music sure is powerful.
A memory from that same time came to mind. I was going through my pre-teen gymnast phase. My dad, upon discovering me doing cartwheels in the living room one day, strongly suggested that I not do that anymore. Unfortunately, I had a bad case of Nadia Comaneci fever, having closely followed the 1976 Summer Olympics. So the urge to bounce about was irresistible. A few days later, on the very last indoor tumbling run of my life, my foot hit and broke the plastic cover on my dad’s record player. The very same turntable from which Hank Williams sang to me in the dark. Lesson learned.
After the much dreaded confession when my dad came home from work, I searched for, found, and purchased a replacement cover and paid for it from my babysitting money. It was not an easy thing to do back then. There was no Google search. No Amazon Prime. I only had a phone book and a Sears Roebuck catalog. But I had to make it right.
Long story short: it’s amazing how music and memories and the mind work.
Good Night Hank.
Sheila365 