Archives 2013

So yesterday was another rainless  day at the homestead.  When I got home I saw that all of the standing water in the front of the yard was gone (except the trench up front).  I took a peek at the back yard and still saw a large wet area behind the bird feeders but the rest looked mowable.

After loading up on bug spray I hopped on the tractor and got busy.  Certain areas of the back yard were in all out jungle mode with knee high thick grass.  I didn’t bother even trying to go slow enough to knock it down in one pass, it was too high.  I just went back over the extra shaggy areas another time or two when I was done.

As I drove the tractor along the still waterlogged areas I saw a swarm of black flying away from the mower chute.  These were the thousands of baby mosquitoes that have been recently hatched in the low standing water. Thankfully they apparently had not developed a taste for my blood yet, I only had to swat a few away during my time on the tractor.

As I got about half of the yard mowed I started being escorted by a squadron of dragonflies.  Perhaps they realized that I was stirring up the mosquitoes they love to dine on.  It was pretty cool.

As I was mowing the yard I envisioned a DJI Phantom hovering overhead….

Yesterday was one of those days where I felt like I just had too many things on my plate.  In addition to the big project at work that has been consuming hours by the dozen I also had a number of running club items that I was working on simultaneously.  By the time I got home I just wished I could unwind by playing the Starcraft II expansion I bought last week, but instead I found myself still muddling around doing running club related work for a couple hours.  Finally, around 8:45 I was able to get into the game and at least play through one mission.

Complaining about having too many people requesting too many things of me really shouldn’t garner any sympathy as I have put myself in that situation.  Just stating it is enough of a pressure relief valve for now.  It sure would be nice to get away on a road trip where I could unplug from things for an extended period of time.

So on July 4th there was a guy at the race that shot awesome aerial video with his quadra-copter.  It pulled a couple of the RC enthusiast strings inside me that have been collecting dust for years.

Back in the early 2000’s I got pretty into RC planes.  I owned 5 or 6 of them and flew them on a very regular basis.  I had a buddy that lived nearby that was more into it than I was.  He and I would meet up to fly every week or two and enjoyed doing so.  Heck I had a whole section of my website dedicated to it.  Well Mike moved away to Colorado and once he did I found my interest in the hobby fading.  It has remained dormant for years despite two of my planes still residing in the hobby room.

Well over the weekend I was in Brookstone. I saw the Parrot AR Drone 2.0, a $300 “toy” quadracopter that has some very cool features like two integrated cameras, an altimeter, control via Iphone/Android app and two flying frames, one for indoors and one for the wild blue yonder.    Being out of the RC loop for years, I was quite impressed by the tech they built into the AR Drone 2.0.

I actually was considering buying one, thinking it would be sweet to get some aerial photography of my property and other venues although the AR Drone has a rather small control range of only 150 feet via it’s odd Wi-Fi control system.  The idea of getting one seemed even cooler when I saw there is a big variety of improvements/mods available for the copter.

As I was watching YouTube videos of the AR Drone, I stumbled across another quadra copter, the DJI Phantom. (this is what the race video was shot with)  I did a little digging and quickly realized the Phantom is no toy, it is a rugged, powerful unit with much more lifting power, durability and safe guards.  The Phantom has an integrated GPS which allows the copter to automatically come back to the spot where it took off and land without the pilot having to touch a single control.

The Phantom has 10 times the range of the AR Drone utilizing a more conventional RC radio system, allowing you traverse 1500 feet high and still be in control of things.

On the downside the Phantom is significantly more expensive. It does not include an integrated camera although it does include a GoPro compatible mount to capture video of significantly higher quality than the AR Drone.

So anyway, I think if I would jump back in to the hobby I would do so with the Phantom.  The consensus seems to be that even though it is twice the price of the AR Drone it is about 10 times the copter in terms of quality, power and versatility.  Of course until I once again have disposable income, it will just reside on the back burner with several other items.

On Friday night I knocked out even more of my chore list, trying to clear up my weekend for other things.  One of the Friday night things included replacing the cracked lid to the pool filter.  When I ordered the new lid I also decided to order a new pressure relief valve and pressure gauge as well since the old parts were beat to hell from 11 years in the Florida elements.  Hopefully this will extend the overall life of my pool filter another few years.

On Saturday morning I was once again doing work on Cindy’s Miata.  It suddenly would no longer start one day last week.  I did a lot of research on the problem and discovered that Miatas are infamous for crank, but no start problems, especially 23 year old Miatas.  Unfortunately there are 5 or 6 things that can cause this symptom.

In 1990, cars didn’t have very advanced diagnostics.  In order to perform some of the recommended tests I had to use a jumper wire across various points in a diagnostic terminal under the hood.

I have done a few things on the car so far.  As I dig through it, I am reminded of the 88 Vette I owned for roughly 6 months, there has been a lot of rig jobs done on the Miata over the years.

So anyway, my testing had determined that the engine is getting spark but no fuel.  My troubleshooting guide lead me to check out the fuel pump.  The first test was to once again use the diagnostic terminal to bypass a relay to see if I could hear the pump running with the engine off.  I couldn’t.

I then proceeded to access the fuel pump which you do via the rear deck inside the passenger compartment.  After removing the carpet and padding I pulled off the metal cover that hides the pump.  The pump itself was rigged as well with a wire spliced in and routed through a small hole in the top of the pump housing.

So I lifted the pump partially out and inspected it.  I didn’t see anything wrong so I thought maybe I would try the run test again, just to make sure it was not pumping. I expected it not to run.  Well imagine my surprise when it did.  Not only did it run, it spit some gasoline out since the feed end was still dipped partially into the gas tank.

I had pulled the rubber feed and return lines since my intention was to totally pull the pump out.  As a result the gas spilled on the ledge.  Luckily I was quick to kill the key but still enough spilled to make the car smell like a gas station, grr.  It was stupid of me to try to run it without the lines connected or at least a towel or something in place to catch gas.  I just assumed it wasn’t going to work.

So now the pump was working.  I am not sure if something was flaky with the rigged electrical connections  and my removal just happened to get it connected again or what.  I put the pump back into the tank and turned the key, the car started for the first time in 4 days.  Wow.  I ran it through a number of start tests and took the car out briefly on the road to see how solid my “fix” was.  The car was fine and has been fine ever since. Of course what I did got it going for now but sooner or later it could pop up again.  If it does, replacing the fuel pump and the rigged wiring would be the proper course of action.

On Saturday night I saw Pacific Rim.  I had seen some poor reviews of the film but I really didn’t care, it had huge ass robots in it, it couldn’t be that bad.  I actually liked it.  I did not realize that this was basically a 2013 Godzilla style movie, complete with Hong Kong being used as a a huge boxing ring for monsters/mega robots.  I found the movie to be fun and entertaining.  If you are looking for deep plot, meaningful dialogue and Oscar worthy acting then keep on walking.  If you want to see some kick ass robots beating the shit out of some hard core monsters from hell, strap in and take a look.  I actually would give it an A- just on entertainment value.

Sunday morning it was looking dreary and overcast but I wanted to get a brick in anyway.  The rain stayed away but the roads for part of the bike ride were quite wet, my bike was coated in sand and grime after the 12.25 ride.  I also got a fast 1200 yards in the pool, averaging less than 9 minutes per 400.

During the swim there was an encounter with an incredible dumb ass father.  As I was swimming, during one breathing head turn, I noticed some guy on the diving board wearing sunglasses.  You are not ever supposed to ever go off a diving board wearing glasses, the impact with the water could potentially break the glasses and smash the shards into your face.  Of course the dumb kid lifeguard didn’t flag the stupidity either.  I recall thinking, “what a dummy” as I continued swimming.

So a couple minutes later I am turning at the wall and see the same guy by the edge of the other lane with his wife and two daughters.  As I push off and head back the other way  I hear him say “get ready, go!”  This guy had just sent his two kids down the other lane, the lane that Cindy was occupying.  Not only was she occupying it, she was about 15 yards away from the kids and swimming right towards them.

Luckily Cindy saw the flailing kids before she ran into them.  She abruptly stopped and asked the brain dead dad what he was thinking, sending his children headfirst into an oncoming swimmer.  I had heard the noise and stopped at the far side.  The guy apologized but we were both dumbfounded by just how stupid his actions were.  It was confirmation of the guys habitual poor decision making based on his sunglass sporting diving action right before.

I tried to analyze the thought process he utilized.  Did his little girls say “daddy we want to race in the lap pool!” and he was unable to deny them, even for a minute, so he let them loose without thinking about their safety or of anyone else?  Maybe he was just really, really unobservant.  Perhaps he is just a moron?  I am leaning towards choice three.

That being said, if the kid lifeguard was doing his job, he could have saved the guy from his own poor decision making, twice.

Sunday there was more Miata work, this time installing headrest speakers.  I did not know that Miatas have the option for headrest speakers.  The only vehicle I knew of that had them were the old Pontiac Fieros.  Installing the speakers wasn’t hard, it just took some time to make sure it was done right.  It’s kind of cool having the stereo output come out right by your head, it’s like open air headphones.

Sunday night I saw the latest Bourne Identity movie, the first one without Matt Damon.  It was good although I once again made the mistake of watching it while drowsy, causing me to miss some elements that may have added to my overall enjoyment of the film.  Even with the gaps I’d give it a B+.

It was a good thing I got the grass mowed last week.  The unrelenting rain since has turned the property back into a swamp wonderland.  One of the few perks of this phenomenon is occasionally ducks will mistake the back yard as a pond and stop by for a visit.  I had two of them hanging by the bird feeders for quite awhile on Saturday.

Yesterday when I was leaving work it was raining lightly.  As I was pulling out of the lot I passed a guy riding his bike.  A quick glance revealed he was not well off, he looked haggard, dirty and generally beat down by life.  Behind his bike he was towing a child stroller however it did not contain a child.  A dog, a brown boxer, was the passenger.

Despite being towed along in the rain by an owner that looked like he would be hard pressed to afford dog food, the dog looked perfectly content, excited to get to wherever they were going, even if he had no clue where that was.

The visual touched me as I imagined that despite whatever has gone down in that guys life to bring him to that point, he still at least has the unconditional love of an animal to keep him going, even when it’s bleak and raining.

So I got a surprise call from my CC company today regarding the fraud that was committed on my card a month or so ago.  I thought the issue was dead.

The woman told me she had some additional information about the transaction that utilized my card to purchase items from Underarmour.com.  The purchase, of just less than $600 was 3 pairs of football spikes and 2 pairs of running shoes.  The ship to name sounded fake, Yusmailiana Galcez, and the address the items were shipped to was over in Homestead, just south of Miami.

However the woman then gave me the telephone number used for the transaction, it was a local 239 area code, hmmm.  So the first thing I did was call the number and ask for Yusmailiana, no one there by that name, “Ok, thank you” and I hang up.

So now I look up the phone number and find it is an address no more than 5 miles from my house, under a totally different name, the plot thickens.  So I forwarded this information to the owner of Zookies whom I spoke to before as I originally suspected one of their staff could have been involved in the fraud.

I am debating if I want to further my prosecution efforts and walk over to the sheriff’s office to file an official report.  It will probably involve more hassle than it’s worth since the charges are already wiped clean and I have a new card.  However there is that little revengeful/do the right thing,  part of me that wants to see the asshole that did this get nailed to the wall.

If the number would have been a Homestead area code I would just let it slide due to distance but the fact that the potential suspect is right in my home area makes me feel like I need to make the effort.

Ali came out to the house to pick up the dogs after their 5 day sleep over.  They of course were happy to see Ali as always and as always there is always a tinge of sadness in me when they leave.

I was hoping to get back out on the mower and knock down the high grass in the back half of the property however huge deluges of rain during the day washed those plans away.  Instead I filled my productivity needs by doing laundry, cleaning Tuki’s cage and the bathrooms, knocking weekend chore targets out of the way.

Speaking of the weekend, it looks like a potluck.  I will be doing some more Miata diagnostics/repairs and might get out to see some movie although I am not quite sure which one yet.

Sunday will probably involve some brick training although I am still smarting from my 355 pound dead lift on Wednesday.  Thankfully the knee that made an awful crunch appears to still be intact.  My lower back, ass and legs seem to have taken more of a hit.

Yea, that’s all I got…

So I got lucky and have had a day and a half with no rain, enough time to let the standing water recede back into the ground.  I didn’t want to waste the opportunity so after feeding the dogs I immediately headed out to hop on the tractor.  Even with my recent sharpening of the blades, the cut isn’t that great, especially on the sections that are extra shaggy, requiring a second pass at times.

I had the dogs out with me when I started the mowing but I left the screen door open in case they wanted to go back inside.  I was surprised that they both almost immediately went inside instead of hanging out in the yard.  However as soon as the dogs heard the tractor shut off when I parked it, they both came back out.  I guess the yard just isn’t as much fun unless I am out there with them.

I still had ample sunlight so I thought I would make my Wednesday evening ultra-productive by replacing the washer nozzles on the Tacoma.  I bought generic but highly rated replacements off Amazon.  The new nozzles utilize a wide fan spray pattern instead of the two stream nozzles that never worked all that well, that came with the truck.

Replacing the nozzles was easy and straightforward, but imagine my frustration when I tested the new nozzles and still had shitty flow out of the driver side.  I decided there had to be some sort of blockage in the piece of tube that ran from the junction at the passenger side nozzle to the driver side.   I had some spare washer line so I threw that in there.

I hopped back in the truck and fired off the washers, BINGO, I had a nice strong spray on both sides.  Since the washers on the truck never worked great, the minor $11 repair felt like it had major rewards.  Sometimes it’s the simple things…

Of course I recorded the job for my growing library of automotive maintenance videos.

After work last night I got home and was happy to see that Nicki was able to hold her urine this time.  We do this routine where I walk around the house making sure there are no “surprises” as Nicki follows me.  When we get back to the last spot, the master bathroom, without seeing any problem areas I throw my hands up and say “good girl!”.  Nicki wags her tail in pride and I reward her with a treat.

I quickly made the dogs supper which again Nicki immediately scarfed down, not leaving a single morsel.  I then hopped in the SSR to head back toward town for the running club meeting.  I figured if I was in a rush the SSR would be the vehicle to take.

As I was cruising down the highway, after a 0-100mph on ramp approach, a large bug smashed the windshield.  Without thinking I flipped on the windshield washer, despite going 85 mph and having the top down.  Well I got an unplanned washer fluid shower as the wind pressure pushed the fluid off the glass and into the passenger compartment. Dumb ass.

The running club meeting was a long one as there were three guests, two that were pitching new races and one talking about their existing race.  We didn’t get out of there until after 8.  As predicted I bypassed any South Street action although I think nobody wound up going anyway.

It feels like there are a number of maintenance chores around the house that I have been neglecting.  The garage and pool deck could use a Dirt Dog session. (if it still works after it’s latest dip in the pool)  The pool cage is starting to take on that lovely green tint that means it is time to pull out the pressure washer.  Parts of the back yard are starting to look like a wheat field from high grass.

I also am going to have to do something about my pool filter.  The hairline crack in the top lid that I tried to fix with PVC cement started leaking again, worse than before.  At first I thought I would have to replace the entire filter and gasped when I saw it could cost me close to $500 to do so.  Luckily more searching revealed I can just buy the top part of it where the crack is for less than $100, evidently this must be a common failure.  Even better I can get it via Amazon with free Prime shipping.  🙂

So yesterday was the first day for a new experiment with the dogs.  I had my neighbor from across the street come and let them out once during the day so I wouldn’t have to drive home and back over my lunch hour.  It was a partial success.

The house was feces free but Nicki was unable to hold her bladder.  Luckily the urine was in the kitchen so the ceramic tile made for easy clean up.  My neighbor came over a little early in the day, around 10:30 so that might have been making Nicki hold it just a little too long.

With her thyroid medicine, Nicki drinks a ton of water and as a result has to pee quite often.  Today the neighbor is going to come over closer to noon to see if it works out better.

So as I mentioned a couple weeks ago, Nicki had not been doing good with her eating.  She appeared to just be sick of the bland hypo-allergenic food she had been eating for 6 months or more.  Ali started including blanched chicken in Nicki’s meals and it has totally flipped around her attitude towards eating.

Before, when I put down the old stuff Nicki would just lay there and not even bother to go up to the dish most of the time.  Now she is sitting by my side as I prep the meals, dying with anticipation.  She has completely cleaned her plate 3 times, something she hadn’t done for me in months.

Of course this diet change requires more legwork, much more than opening a can and dumping it in a bowl.  I bought a big package of boneless chicken thighs at Sam’s, boiled them and put them in a big container in the fridge.  Before each meal I take a couple pieces out, put it in a small bowl with some water and microwave them for a minute.  Then I take them out, cut them into smaller pieces and insert her pills inside the chicken as well as adding a couple other supplements. This then gets mixed in with a can of dog food, she prefers it to get mixed with the Merrick that we used to feed her instead of the vet stuff.

It seems like for whatever reason Nicki likes when more prep work is put into her meals, perhaps just because that is how things were for years before her intestinal episode.  By the time I put her meal down she is only inches away, ready to start gobbling it down. It’s good to see her so interested in eating again.

Tonight I have a rather inconvenient schedule.  I have to drive home, let the dogs out and then drive all the way back to town for a running club meeting.  I will need to skip the typical post meeting drink/eat/bullshit session at South Street so I can get back home to make the dogs dinner.

Friday after work I did my normal post work grocery shopping which this week included a stop at Sam’s Club. One of the things I needed was to restock on Mexican Coke.  Evidently being a Mexican Coke dealer can be pretty profitable.  On the internet I found sites selling cases such as these for upwards of $50.   Considering they cost $18.88 at Sam’s there is a nice fat profit margin out there.

On Saturday morning I drug myself out of bed at 4:30 am for the second week in a row to go do the club run.  Turn out for the run was on the light side but the run was on the faster side, averaging in the high 8’s for the nearly 7.25 mile run.

When I got back home I was feeling  pretty tired from the combination of early wake time with the energy depleted from the run.  I knew I had to get back up and moving else I would fall victim to a nap.  I had hopes of getting a lot of manicuring done in the yard since the standing water had finally evaporated.

I got the weeding done and then decided to eat lunch.  After lunch I needed to go fill the gas cans, by the time I got back the skies had turned menacing.  I got about 10 minutes of weed whacking in before the first downpour hit.  I retreated inside and played some of 400 Days, the Walking Dead sequel on the 360 until the rain stopped.

The break in the rain was only temporary but any rain that fell on me at that point was not enough to force me back inside.

So I was about 90 seconds away from finishing up the weed whacking, trimming the edge of the driveway, walking towards the road.  All of a sudden I hear the rpm’s of the motor rev way up.  I look down and confirm the spool just ran out of line, fck, great luck.  Now of course I could have simply said f it, the 15 yards of un-whacked driveway is no big deal, more than likely I am the only one on the planet that would even notice.  I could simply put the weed whacker away and reload the spool the next time I get the whacker out.

Well whether it is some sort of OCD or whatever it is that drives me to want to finish something I started, I instead chose to walk back to the shed, reload the trimmer line and walk back out front and knock down the remaining hairy edge.  The rain had crossed mowing off the to do list for me, I guess I’ll need to try to knock it out this week.

I mentioned I played 400 days, I actually finished the WD add on Saturday afternoon.  It is basically short story lines about 5 or 6 other people in the zombie apocalypse.  It was fun but not as engaging as the main game and probably a little short on content since I completed everything in a couple hours.

Saturday night Cindy had a small party at her place that was attended by mostly people from the running club I know along with a few that I didn’t.  I utilized BLP’s to help ease the social anxiety I can suffer from in those situations.  It was a fun time that went later than expected.

Sunday morning, after sleeping in much later than normal, I went and picked up the dogs.  Ali is out of town for a few days.  I sat the blue ottoman in the middle of the great room for Nicki to see.  Nicki sniffed it but didn’t have any interest in getting up on it.  The way Nicki’s brain works, if I am too forward in getting her to try the ottoman the more distrustful she will be of it.  However I did lay on it myself to show her it’s intended use.  Sadie also had no issue jumping up there and hanging out for a little bit.

Sunday was a very dreary and wet day.  It seemed like the weather conditions somehow crept into myself as well, I just didn’t feel like doing very much.  Outside of a few scattered chores I spent a lot of  time just vegging out, catching up on Tivo as well as my latest Netflix rental, Surrogates.

Surrogates was a decent rental with an interesting premise, in the future, the majority of people no longer directly interact with the world.  Instead they lay in a contraption which connects them to a cyborg version of themselves, a surrogate.  The movie has Bruce Willis in it so you know it can’t be awful, I’d give it a solid B rating, which may be a little low because I was drowsy while viewing it.

So late Saturday night the jury returned a not guilty verdict on George Zimmerman.  I am not sure if I have talked at all about his shooting of the young black kid.  To me it seems like basically Zimmerman vaulted over the line of what he should have been doing as a member of neighborhood watch, wound up getting his ass beat by the kid that he accosted unnecessarily and decided the gun he was carrying was the way to even the playing field.

From the bits and pieces I heard about the trial, I wasn’t shocked he was found not guilty.  It seems that if the jurors were going to follow the instructions they were given by the court and make a decision solely on the evidence, this was going to be the outcome.

From a moral standpoint, Zimmerman absolutely was to blame for Martin’s death.  He started the conflict with his police officer wannabe mentality and ended it when he pulled the trigger on a kid that didn’t deserve to die.  However with our court system, if the evidence isn’t there to convict someone under the law, you aren’t supposed to be convicted, regardless of the moral circumstances involved.

Although Zimmerman is a “free” man, I don’t expect the rest of his life to be anything anyone would envy.  I imagine he will basically take on the life of someone in a witness protection program.  I doubt he can ever be assured that the next corner he turns won’t be his last, when a Trevon Martin sympathizer decides to invoke their own personal justice on him.

Last night I decided Duf’s garage would once again be open for evening hours, this time to replace the washer fluid reservoir on my Tacoma.  The old tank was brittle and cracking and I was getting hardly any fluid on the windshield when spraying.

I had watched one video outlining the procedure to pull the bottle ahead of time, it didn’t look too bad to get at.  The removal process went smoothly.  Once I had stuff apart I did a stand alone test of the washer pump to make sure it was functional, it was.  I then turned on my air compressor and attached it to the washer tubing to blow it out.

So now I was ready to put the new tank in place.  I took the new tank out of the bag.  I was glad it looked identical to the old tank.  When I order something online I am always worried I won’t get the right part.  Then I flipped the new tank over.  WTF??  The new tank has the same hole as the old one does to insert the washer pump into it, however it had a second, bigger hole right in the bottom of the tank! Damn it!

I was trying to figure out why there would be an inch and a half hole in the bottom of the new tank.  Perhaps it is a tank that works in more than one Toyota model?  Maybe there is a rubber plug in the box that I did not see?  I ripped apart the bag and the box the part came in, nothing….. argh.

So now I had two options.  I put the truck back together sans tank and call the place I got the part from and ask them to either send me some sort of plug or a tank that doesn’t include the mystery hole.  That option would mean more hassle and more waiting.

Option two was find a way to rig it.  I chose option 2.  I spent a good 10 minutes staring at my workbench and the various things I had available to me to try to plug the hole in an effective but unobtrusive way.  I struck out, I was going to have to go out looking for some solution.  I grabbed the new tank and threw it in the party van.

I decided to try the small hardware store that is about 5 miles from my house first.  I was hoping I would get lucky.  I came up with an 1 1/2″ rubber drain plug.  It was a little big for the hole but I figured with a little elbow grease and a piece of sand paper I could make it work.

When I got back I found that sand paper was too slow of an option.  I brought out the dremel with a sanding wheel to enlarge the opening slightly.  I jammed the plug in, then went around the edge of it with silicone and slapped a piece of duct tape on top of it as a safety net.  Yes it looked pretty funny but who cares?

I dumped some water into the freshly plugged tank to verify it was water tight.  It passed the test.  Unfortunately all told, the unexpected hole in total probably added 90 minutes to the replacement process.

So I got the truck back together, dumped washer fluid in and pulled the washer lever.  Fluid sprayed out beautifully on the passenger side.  The driver side was not so beautiful, it was more of a weak stream that didn’t get very high on the windshield at all.    I did some more manipulation of that nozzle, blowing it out again and even hitting it with a tiny drill bit.  Neither thing helped the problem significantly.

The stream on the passenger side is strong and big enough that the entire windshield gets clean when spraying but I still felt dissatisfied.  After all that work I wanted equally strong spray on both sides.  To get what I want I probably need to just replace the nozzles.  I didn’t get back inside until after 8pm.  Here is the video of the theatrics.

This morning I had someone out to the house to look at the AC system.  My Trane system has been fantastic since it was installed in 2010.  It does a great job of keeping the house cool while using significantly less energy than the piece of shit system the house builder threw in.

In the past month or so I noticed/heard something weird while I was working outside.  There was an electrical buzz/vibration sound coming from the outside compressor.  Almost a sound like it was trying to start the motor but couldn’t.  However the house was still being kept cool so I put off calling anyone about it.

Well the high electric bill I just received kicked me into action, placing the call yesterday to the woman who sold us the unit, whom since had started her own HVAC business.  It turns out the noise I was hearing was indicative of a problem, one of the relays is bad as well as a capacitor.    They had to order parts to fix it but the system will continue to function until then in a less efficient manner.

I was surprised when I was handed a 200 dollar bill since the unit was under warranty.  The bill was for labor but the parts were covered.  After the tech left I dug around in my “AC” folder and found the original paperwork.  We had paid for a 10 year extended warranty that is supposed to be parts and labor.

On my way to work I called back Juli and told her that I don’t think I should have been charged anything.  She didn’t remember I had an extended warranty  and confirmed it covers both parts and labor.  She said she would send the check I handed over back to me, sweet.

This weekend I will be moving and shaking as usual.  On Sunday I pick up the dogs for their extended visit.  I made arrangements for my neighbor across the street to come over during the week and let them out during the day as opposed to me doing a crazy nearly 50 mile/ 90 minute round trip in the middle of the day to do the same.  It will be a huge help.