cold water

When one thing breaks, it all goes. Over labor day our washing machine stopped running. We thought we would just get it fixed, after all it was only 7 years old. Seems young for a washer to go kaput. Of course the warranty was out, so we called Sears and arranged for them to come to repair it and got our 4 hour window of time for them to show up. Then they told us we could buy another service contract; $200 would get us 1 year of service or $500 toward a new washer, sounded good to us. Well, the service guy missed his 4 hour window and I had to go to school, we set up another 4 hour window two days later. They didn't show, and when I called they didn't have our appointment. Boy was I ready to blow, mind you at this point the washer had not been working for a week and 5 people create mountains of stinky laundry. You know. I cancelled the Sears contract, got my money back and started calling independent repair guys. Ah!! little did I know that we did better than most with the washer we had, they all told me that most people only got a few years out of theirs, apparently this washer has the worst repair record in washer history. Ugh, they said don't spend the money fixing it and start over. So we went shopping for a new washer, got some fancy front loader that is super efficient, but we had to wait another 5 days for it to come. So the kids and I traipsed to the laundromat and filled 10 washers, hauled 10 wet loads home and hung them on the line and dried some in the dryer. Great, then the clothesline fell over twice with the weight of all those wet clothes and Brian had to bend the metal back into shape and make a new stand for it with hurkier pipe fittings. At the same time my bug stopped starting. I had it towed to the repair shop, but they couldn't figure it out right away, it turns out a computer thing in the car recognizes the keys, and that was what stopped working. The engine was fine, the cars brain just had alzheimers. Unfortunately only the dealer has the secret code to straighten this out and they would not give it to the repair shop. They called and I called several dealers, no luck, so we had to pay for it to be towed to the dealer to get fixed. All that took 2 weeks! Finally everything was back and running fine and Brian and I were relaxing on the front porch the other evening and a thought came into my head that we have had our water heater since we moved in 18 years ago and it is still working. I didn't say it out loud, I thought I was safe! But noooo, Friday night the hot water heater went out, so we are without hot water until Monday, when Ernie's, our trusted plumber can come install a new one. Why does this stuff always happen on the weekend? The picture above is the hot water being made for my bath today. I was feeling rather grungy, I tried but just couldn't bring myself to step into a cold shower. My hero, husband carried three giant pots of boiling water to make a nice hot bath for me. Warm water never felt so good.

And just in case it seems like I don't get to knit anymore, it is true. Well, not totally true, I get to knit some. Here are the socks I started the other day. Blue Moon Socks that Rock yarn in Lunasea. Tidal wave pattern. I love this pattern, it is easy to memorize and I think I like cuff down better that toe up socks. I tried a new cast on that is stretchier.
I don't dare even think about what else might break, clear your head of all thoughts of broken things. But don't hold your breath, life goes on.