Needing a little downtime

When a man has to work 5-days a week at work, he should be able to have a little bit of down time on the weekends. Well, if you are a home owner then you know there is always something that needs to be done. Today I had more than my fair share of stuff that needed to be done...

So, I'm relaxed on the couch, still nursing the upper respiratory infection that I have, when all of a sudden I hear; "Dad, the dishwasher is making a weird noise!" Oh brother, what now, I wondered? I could hear the loud grinding sound coming from the kitchen. I grabbed some wrenches, dropped on the floor in front of the dishwasher and began dismantling. Turns out a wayfaring toothpick had made it's way through the food trap and into the motor...wonderful.

I took care of the dishwasher problem, turned to open the refrigerator and noticed a puddle of water in the floor in front of it. A quick survey of the inside revealed that the freezer was defrosting and dumping water down into the fridge. Luckily I had ran into this problem a few years ago and knew what the culprit was, a clogged drain tube. Empty the fridge, pull off the blower cover, yank out the drip cup ram a straw down the drain tube, spray warm water on the frozen ice that was coating everything and voila, back in business. Sounds easy...right? Not so fast buckwheat. There is always a catch. You see, to completely clean out the drain tube you have to pull the fridge out from the wall to access the tube to clean it out. One twist and pull too much and you disrupt the natural order of things down around the ice maker water inlet tube. So there I stand with water spraying uncontrollably out from under the fridge, wondering if I should pull the power plug with wet hands while standing in a puddle of water. Against my better judgement I pulled the plug. I'm still alive to type this post so you know things turned out okay.

Next, I had to change the oil in my wife's Xterra and in my Pathfinder. They were both way over due and this was the only time I had to do it. Like I said earlier, I am still sick with an upper respiratory infection so I had no business whatsoever being outside in 28 degree weather. But, I bundled up in my coveralls and toboggan (which I look like a total dweeb in), yelled at Matthew to come and help me, and headed toward the garage. Just so you know, my garage does not have a front door so it's not the warmest of places to work. There is only room for one vehicle in my garage and I have my '93 Nissan Hardbody truck parked in there. I had to move it out of the way. I climbed in, turned the key, and nothing... So I grabbed my portable battery charger, and tried to jump it off...nothing, it was dead too. I ended up having to change the oil out in the driveway. Did I mention it was snow flurrying today???

After changing oil in the vehicles I went to Pep Boys to look for a new battery. I haven't had to buy one in about 10-years. Much to my amazement they have doubled in price! A hundred bucks later and heading back home feeling the pain in my wallet. Since I drive my Pathfinder on a daily basis, I put the new battery in it and moved it's battery to the Hardbody.

I had plans to take the family to the drive-thru nativity at Rutledge Pike Baptist tonight but wasn't able to make it. I'm just too dadgum busy. Luckily I'm going to be off from work for Winter break in a couple of weeks. Maybe I'll have a little down time then.