Breakdowns

So many things around my house have been breaking down.

The computer went wacko but I fixed that myself. I am so proud of me!  It wouldn't start up: the screen just alternated between black and then the loading screen.  Oh, it's the video card, each of the handy people in the house told me.  I managed to run a scan and NOTHING came up.  So I restored it to a point back in time before the problem started.  Did I mention I'm so proud of myself!  Because I'm not considered a handy person around here, even though I am reasonably competent.  That's what happens in a houseful of handy people.

While I was off on the college road trip, Handy called the appliance man to look at the stove. Not only was it all explody when we turned on the broiler (a continual problem I have had repaired at least 5-6 times), but the oven ignition was explody too. A technical explanation is that the ignitors were taking too long to ignite, so there was more gas than normal. When they finally did light, the extra gas went WHUMP! and the oven door popped open a bit from the pressure. Yeah, not too safe never mind the fact that it made me jump every time it happened.  Yes, I do have a fire extinguisher just in case.  Mr. Appliance Man only had one ignitor so he replaced the one in the oven.  He never came back with one for the broiler (and conveniently forgot to bill us for the first visit).  So Handy ordered an ignitor on-line and fixed the broiler.

And then there was the refrigerator.  Water was collecting under the vegetable drawer.  Handy took off the back of the fridge and cleaned out the drain tubes etc. and it seems to be better.  It's still a little drippy but not nearly as much.

Also, the freezer was over-defrosting, thawing all the ice which would then drip out over everything in the freezer.  Handy figured out it was either an $8 part or a $200 electronic board.  The $8 part did not fix it but the $200 part did.

Ernest's car door lock was malfunctioning so he fixed that too.

Then the deadbolt on the back door broke.  First it was stuck, then it broke free and the key just spun around.  We called in a locksmith, because while Handy could have installed a new lock, he wouldn't have been able to rekey it to match the front door.  The locksmith actually fixed the lock, rather than replacing it.  Nice.

Then last night the coffee maker went crazy. You might think the coffee maker would be the last straw, but we do have back-ups for that! The 20-year-old pour-over Melitta, or we could steal the Mr. Coffee from Frank's apartment.

Usually things come in threes for me but let me count here - 7:  computer, oven, broiler, refrigerator, freezer, car door, coffee maker.   Hmmm.  What else could go wrong?

I'll tell you tomorrow!