maintenance

Dreaded tasks

Posted on by backuphill

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I spent the weekend doing stuff I just really dislike. Chores that probably really need to be done and I can do so that I don’t have to pay someone else to do them, but chores that are not a pleasure to do by any means.

The washing machine (front loaders really do suck, don’t buy one even though they are being pushed like hell) hasn’t been working all that well as of late, so it was time to clean out the filter and rebalance to see if that helped. Disassembled, adjusted, cleaned, water everywhere (there’s no good way to keep that from happening), and then rebalanced (never mind the fact that the house isn’t level or square). All of that to find out that, other than cleaning out the filter) that it pretty much operates the same as before all that effort.

Cool. I hate life.

Then it was the dryer. Time to clean out the dryer vent.

Shop vac, cleaner brush tool, drill, duct tape, and hours of effort. Good lord! There was a ton of lint in there! CLEAN OUT YOUR DRYER VENT AT LEAST ONCE A YEAR! Anyway, that part was relatively easy. But, as I was putting it all back together I realized after starting the dryer back up to blow some of the remnant lint out of the line that it wasn’t pushing air like I expected…which means it was disconnected some place under the house. Damn. So, another 30 minutes getting ready the supplies I would need under the house and then moving everything in the way to get to the crawl space. Sure enough, disconnected. So, I put that all back together and got it all cleaned up. Not it works like it should.

Today I am sore and stiff.

I am too old for this crap.

I truly hate doing these kinds of chores. I am also cheap, so paying someone to do them isn’t even a consideration. I just suck it up and deal.

But seriously, why does it always have to go sideways every time? There is always an issue. Always something that needs to be repaired or adjusted after doing it. Why can’t it just go smoothly and with zero hassle?

Anyone else hate certain chores or tasks that they do because they don’t want to pay someone to do it? What are they?

When it don’t

Posted on by backuphill

Photo by Aditya Singh on Pexels.com

Yesterday. Yesterday was a challenge. Well, not the whole day, but a part of the day that mattered more than the rest, if that makes sense.

Like most people who are working from home these days, Zoom or Teams or whatever video conferencing platform you use is kind of an essential part of your job. Meeting with clients, meeting with your supervisors/teammates/co-workers, or meeting with potential clients is something that typically needs to be done several times throughout the day.

Yesterday, I was co-hosting a meeting (a training) with clients and the challenges of the day started shortly after the meeting began.

First, the video started to freeze and the sound was choppy. Then the internet just dropped altogether.

Gone. Kicked outta the meeting.

I frantically tried to reconnect, and within a minute or two I am back in the meeting. Apologies to my co-worker and clients.

15 minutes later I am dropped again.

This time, after waiting for over 5 minutes to get a signal back, I find there just is no internet at all. Damn. Wait several minutes, still no internet. Wait several more minutes, look to see if there is internet by staring at the router. It says there is WiFi, but of course that just means it is broadcasting not that there is data being transferred.

I tell my phone to stop using WiFi and then log into the Xfinity app. Sure enough, internet is down for maintenance in the area. Affected customers is between 51-500. “Expected restoration of services…” is an hour and a half. Seriously?

How about a little warning? Or, better yet, if this was an unexpected outage, how about a text message with info letting me know this info without me having to become a detective for the internet signal?

Thankfully the outage didn’t last as long as they estimated. The internet came back and I logged back into the meeting after 30 minutes. It appeared that I might get kicked from the meeting again after 20 minutes, but apparently they figured out something and I was able to co-host as expected.

The internet is obviously a necessity these days, especially when it comes to work.

But, when it don’t work, it don’t work. And neither do you.

The city

Posted on by backuphill

canal nature outdoors park

The ditch doesn’t look like this…Photo by Inge Wallumrød on Pexels.com

Just had a guy from the city stop by.

I called a month ago to see if I could get someone to come out and take a look at the ditch that runs in front of the house. Of course, the lockdown thing was keeping them from being able to come out and take a look so I figured I would disappear to someone’s “Yeah, we may or may not get to it” file.

The ditch out front of the house is a pain in the rear. Ultimately, since it is in the city’s right of way, I would like to have them put a pipe in it and then make it disappear so the front of the yard doesn’t have that stupid thing. The last guy that lived here tried to fill it himself and the city made him dig it back up because he didn’t do it correctly. As such, it has needed maintenance ever since.

So, the guy comes out. Asks some questions. Wants to know what I would like to have happen. He becomes non-committal about the options they have and then suggests maybe I could clean it out. I politely informed him that I am not going to do the work of the city if it is in their right of way. He said he would talk to some people and get back to me.

So, now I suppose I am officially in the “Yeah, we may or may not get to it” file.

What’s irritating is that they suggested, the first time I called the city, that I do it myself and pay for the supplies and the engineering company, with permits, of course, to fill in the ditch with pipe. Yeah, not gonna happen. What might happen is that I do pay for the supplies and just do it myself in the middle of the night…but then, of course, someone would find out and then I probably would end up either having to dig it out or pay the fees (because governments are always quick to make sure they get their fees) for them to dig it out and do it correctly…not gonna happen.

So, it will just sit there and be useless and unsightly.

Man, I hate that ditch.

Better luck

Posted on by backuphill

man old depressed headache

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Projects. So much time for projects.

BUT, do you have a project you want/need to do but are putting off because you aren’t sure the results you’ll get are what you want?

Don’t you hate it when you work on something and you have it all laid out in your head but then it doesn’t turn out like you envisioned it? OR, maybe it doesn’t go the way you want and it ends up being more trouble than it was worth, falling into that “Better luck next time” category of tasks?

I had one last night like that latter of those two. A retractable screen door on the house needed to be fixed. The most expensive option was to just replace the thing and with a new one or the other option was to buy parts for half the original cost and attempt repairs with no instructional manual. There was a vote and I lost, so repairs it was.

After much grunting, Pissing and Moaning, and not so quiet mutterings under my breath, I got to the project last night after work. And it went about as well as I thought it would. It was more trouble than it was worth. I would have rather started over with a new setup, but there is now a semi-functional screen door again. It just doesn’t work like it did when I originally installed it…which was perfectly (if I do say so myself). Now, it will make due but its not operating as smoothly as it could be.

Oh well.

So, I ask, do you have any projects you are dreading to tackle? Or did you do a project you dreaded only to regret tackling it afterwards?

I’m curious.

Park not!

Posted on by backuphill

photo of brown labrador retriever sitting in front of driveway

Photo by Chris F on Pexels.com

Get your #@$%&#! car off my driveway!

Alright, bear with me here. I am trying really hard to not be an arse-hole, but when someone does something blatantly just because they can when they know they shouldn’t…well, that just burns the hell outta me. Do you think I am being unreasonable?

When I first moved into my current house, it had a gravel driveway. I didn’t like it (call me a sissy if you want) because when I washed the car I would drag the hose around and then it would be covered in small bits of gravel and dirt and not very pleasant to pick up because it was all grimy.

Anyway, I happened to fall into an opportunity to get it blacktopped. So, now it is a nice smooth and surface to park on and to wash the cars on. Now, it’s been nine years since the blacktop was done. It has been seal-coated twice in that time and it continues to show signs of wear over time. It’s starting to crumble on the edges. Its starting to crack where tree roots exist under the driveway. It is starting to sag in one spot where a heavy city truck decided to turn around in our driveway. And, there are some spots of the driveway from where vehicles have dripped fluids.

There’s where the rub comes in! I know EVERY single drip spot on the driveway and pay close attention to them. They are signs to me. They tell me if something on the vehicle needs attention. At a time in the past there was a car that parked in the driveway (because it was mine) that dripped an awful lot until it was replaced. Why did I park it in the driveway and let it leave spots on the driveway? Because it’s MY driveway!

So, now the issue. There are others who have parked on the driveway who also have vehicles that drip fluids. They know this. It isn’t a something they didn’t know about. It wasn’t new to them. I have asked them not to park in the driveway because I don’t want extra spots on the driveway that need to be cleaned the next time maintenance needs to be done. Plus, it causes me stress not knowing if it came from one of our vehicles or not and then I have to figure it out. So, there are several other places to park that are close to the house that is in gravel or grass where they can drip away and it isn’t inconvenient at all.

But NOOOOOO, they still park in the driveway like they live here! It just burns me up. The disrespect is irritating. Are they doing it on purpose? I don’t know. Did they honestly forget? I don’t know and I don’t care.

Just don’t do it! It’s mine and I don’t wanna share with your POS car! Go away and take your car with you! Don’t come back until you figure out where to properly park!

 

Am I being unreasonable? Unfair? Possessive? Or, is what I have requested reasonable?

Stiff and sore

Posted on by backuphill

grayscale photo of man

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All that work on the house and in the yard yesterday has me moving much slower today. Age isn’t just a number, so don’t listen.

I suppose if I did this stuff on a regular basis, I would be less sore. But, climbing up and down a ladder repeatedly to put up gutter guards and using the shears to cut down bushes aren’t something that happens regularly, so that little piece of advice goes in one ear and out the other.

OK, OK, being more physically active would be better, I know.

But today, just let me wallow in my tired, stiff and sore irritation. It’s just best for everyone.

 

Ownership

Posted on by backuphill

blue and gray concrete house with attic during twilight

Photo by Benji Mellish on Pexels.com

There used to be some advertising out there that said, “Ownership has its privileges.” It was something to that effect. I think it was American Express that used to say “Membership has its privileges.” It doesn’t really matter who said what though.

As I sit here on Labor Day and ponder the long list of “To Do” items I have I am starting to wonder if ownership really has its privileges. The “to do” list that needs to be completed before the Fall weather begins to set in is rather daunting and the house seemingly is in constant need of something – repair, upkeep, upgrade…

It’s tiring. It’s costly. It’s annoying.

I have experience all the living situations. Growing up, of course, and living with my parents we were always asked to do chores and we did them. After moving out, I have had apartments that had virtually no upkeep on my part. The apartment life eventually led to the desire to “have my own place” instead of paying someone for their ownership. I have owned my own home and I really like the yard work. There was something different about it when it was my own yard rather than my parents’ yard. I didn’t mind the work, at least for a while. I have owned a condo where the yard work was all done by the HOA and really there was veery little that needed to be done as far as maintenance goes. But, eventually, that feeling of wanting a yard of my own came back again. Well, I once again own a home and I have tired of work that has to go into it. Just the every day upkeep can get overwhelming but then add the looming big expenses like roof replacement, house painting, crawl space cleanup, landscaping…the list never ends!

Is it really a perk to own your own place when, after all, you still face stupid regulations from the city and county about what you can do with your own property? You may not be able to do what you really want to do, so is it really a perk?

I am starting to question the ownership thing and I am also beginning to yearn for the condo days again.

Some days “adulting” can be a real bummer. I am about to labor all day in the yard and on or around the house on Labor Day.

Happy not really a day off because life keeps up.