Vets, autobody and appliances

Disaster recovery is eating away at our summer resources. Sure with money grew on trees. The slippery slope began to show itself with a disastrous encounter with a veterinarian and a wholly botched spaying of Rose. Blood was sprayed. She's OK now, but there were ten days or so where it was down right ugly everywhere we looked. That was one large one to bail out of that mess.

Next up was PU having cracked up her car. There was no part of the accident that wasn't clearly her fault so MPI really took it to her. The gift that keeps on giving. I don't suppose we'll be done with that until she has to renew her license. I don't know what the hell we pay premiums for. What a racket. We had some extra work done on the body while it was in and there went another large one.

The other day I opened the door to the oven and something went bang. It do so in a "you've had what was yours to have and that time has now passed" kind of noise. I'm like my Dad in this way. I can make a silk purse out of a sows ear. I can stretch a repair with the best of them. It's genetic I'm sure. I don't like to have that as my gift to the world, but there it is and I've come to terms with most of it. That admission hasn't stopped me taking an unbalanced pleasure when Dad tells me I'm too fussy or that my standards are too high.

The reality is that I'm just like him in being able to squeeze the last drop of fight out of almost any machinery, including appliances. I differ in many ways from him, but the oven door was a joint project and that's rare indeed and a result of zazen. :*) On my part at least.

I bought this stove several years ago and we cook a lot. We cook a meal at the slightest provocation. We don't buy a lot of canned goods. We're focused on raw materials. We're the type of people that know how to make butter from goat milk. For Easter weekend we had a house full again. The ham was big enough the top was interfering with the top element inside the oven. We cook, OK? We make pasta, we've roasted coffee. It goes on. We're foodies without the caché. Tonight it's a sauce for brocolli, but I digress.

I bought the stove used from a fantasitc appliance repair place called Bain's. They are expert at the phone fix. I once tore the washing machine apart to replace the drive shaft. That required the removal of the basket and some major surgery and they got me the right parts and told me things I didn't know enough to ask. Go Bain's!

A number of years after we bought this stove initially, the springs to help the door return gave out and Dad and Mum happened to be out on tour so Dad was a great help in reworking the worn door. With the lathe and mill handy we rebuilt it well and it's done a good service ever since. When it let go the other day with a great note of finality the hinge pins on both sides let go dropping the entire weight of the door onto the floor. I should weigh the door. It's surprisingly heavy without the help of the springs that act to counter balance it.

So we're in for a new stove and it's time. I've worn out elements on the stove top and the large one on the front right is gimped up in the socket from huge loads during canning last year. My good wife has some good horse power, but she's rough on tools. :D Yes I smile. I come from a place where I thought that all was sacrificed for the "things" and as with everything, balance is a good thing. I think I've found a little. Mum and Dad's place is like a refuge in the storm when I go out there. Everything gets put away and everything is treated with the respect that only people who value the "repair" can appreciate. I always look forward to being there for this comfort and more of course.

To make a long story shorter, there goes another large one.

Then there is the rebate money that we'll be missing out on if the money isn't spent on the basement insolation job. Gads... there's some juggling going on and that's where our summer travel money is going. Bah!
Fight!