What did you do today?

[Spicoli43]

Thanks for the advice spicoli. In that case I'd have to factor that in when comparing with the service cost.

Well, the first service call would probably pay for the warranty. They won't even show up here for under $100. Also, both plans from HD and Lowe's have a 30% refund of the plan price if you don't use it. That's nice, but it will probably be impossible to get 6 years out of an appliance.

 

[Spicoli43]

My every 3 month smoke alarm chirping has started, with one magically needing new batteries in the day on Sunday. That has never happened, but another alarm made up for that by needing a replacement in the middle of the night. Not 0500 when I could acceptably wake up... 0215, the literal middle of the night.

These use AA, but Man, I miss the 9V alarms and am going to try to find some. I never had a chirp before with them and just replaced them with the semi annual time change.

I also had one of the current alarms go into failure, full alarm. I hadn't heard that sound in a long time and it sent my Heart into my throat while I raced to figure out that there was no fire.

 

[zannej]

The dishwashing machine in my house hasn't been used in maybe a decade. Well, not used for its intended purpose. I put stuff in there for storage/drying and it has not been plugged in for a very long time. It never actually washed the dishes. I had to wash them before putting them in bc it would never clean stuff off. Then I would have to re-wash stuff afterward because it left a white film of scum on everything. But Mom insisted that I use it back then. I finally got tired of it. It's only other use is as a small island (since its a freestanding one with wheels).
Started having arrhythmia and feeling something is off with my heart the last couple of days. Googled the symptoms of my meds & its the thyroid med the pharmacy switched me to. It can cause fatigue & slew of heart issues. So, I'm going to call my pharmacist & doctor and ask for a switch to what I was taking before that didn't cause this stuff.
I had trouble sleeping last night because my brother's cats were fighting all night. Snugglebum really has it in for Namir, although Namir had been starting fights throughout the day. Either Gravy Jones or Biscuits had tried to defend Namir & got his tail kicked by Snugglebum. I broke up a fight last night, got Snugglebum up on the cat tree to distract his focus on Namir but Gravy Jones got jealous so he jumped up there. He likes to ram his head in and rub his face on other cats (and dogs) when trying to get attention. Snugglebum was worked up already and got so angry he jumped on Gravy, grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, picked him up, flipped him over and threw him off of the cat tree onto the floor. I'd never seen another cat actually throw another grown cat like that before. Namir went to a hiding spot and was so upset he growled, hissed, and smacked at anything that came near-- including me. Now he's resting but he looks like he's in pain. I can't get him out without getting bitten. My brother is sitting on his behind doing nothing and refusing to help even though they are his cats.
Feel like I didn't get any sleep last night.

Hope you can find a good dishwasher that actually lasts.

 

[Flyover]

They said it will be $200 fee + labor for someone to come out, plus potentially $130 or more for parts. (The motor is what I suspect, if it is a part.) That is a tough spot because it's still $200-400 less than a new dishwasher + warranty, so I'll probably just have to swallow it.

 

[Spicoli43]

Can you get a Home Depot or Lowe's Credit Card? I just ran a mock purchase through Lowe's and they offer 12 months same as cash.

If you choose the repair, you're getting majorly hosed because it will break again because it's a name brand, and more importantly because it's a Samsung.

 

[Flyover]

I could afford to just buy a new dishwasher, but it's taking a gamble basically, that this one won't break again, in a way I can't fix myself, within another few years. I'm feeling lucky. And besides, money I can wait and pay later is worth more than money I have to shell out now. (Plus in 2022 how long would I need to wait to have a dishwasher delivered and installed...)

 

[Flyover]

This photo's from a couple days ago. My wife took some plastic sheeting from when our new couch was shipped to us and used it as a pond liner. I used the kids' wagon to haul over a bunch of rocks to secure the liner at the edges, then hooked a 100' hose up to one of the rain barrels. The entire 55 gallon barrel filled the pond about 1/3 full, then a storm did the rest for us, but the next day it was hot and sunny and apparently the sheets had holes in them or something, so despite the clay soil most of the water was gone by the afternoon. She's now ordered a proper liner off the internet and we'll just keep the plastic that's there already as an underlayment.

 

[Spicoli43]

To each their own, you're talking about a name brand that is already broke. I would finance the purchase of a new one and put the $1000 or whatever into Ebay stock since it hasn't been this low in a long time.

 

[zannej]

I felt really awful yesterday-- lack of balance, feeling lightheaded, exhausted, arrhythmia, shortness of breath, etc-- and decided not to take my thyroid meds last night. I already feel better. That Euthyrox was wrecking me. But I will have to talk to my doctor and pharmacist about switching back to the Levothyroxine that was working well for me. I felt great when taking that. I'm still a bit tired, but not as foggy as I was. I can breathe better. My brother stopped taking it as well because it was making him ill. When my mother got put on it a couple years back it made her sick so she had the doctor switch it to Levothyroxine.

I will probably go to the store to get more porkchops.

Puppies behaved on letting me put them to bed last night. I was filling the water bowls so they both came in. Jelly hopped up on the bed and Peanutbutter walked over to drink the water.

If my energy holds up I'm going to do some more cleaning today.

 

[Eddie_T]

Burned some brush. High temp was 93° but I was in the woods. Rain is in the forecast and I don't want to make the pile bigger since it's under the tree canopy. The trees are high but I don't want enough heat to damage foliage. THe pile was damp in bottom so I used a leaf blower occasionally to keep it hot.

 

[zannej]

I cooked for Mom, released the hounds, and then she wanted me to make pudding. The pudding is setting. I also called my doctor and the pharmacy to get my thyroid meds switched. I'm sweating like crazy. Mom says she's cold.
I saw a tool I want Amazon.com
I'd make short work of all the amazon boxes so they wouldn't fill up the trash. I need to do more cleaning after my nap.

Eddie, good idea to take care of the leaves before they build up too much.

 

[Flyover]

The auction house lost one of my items (will get a refund) but I got the other two home. One item was a patio table more befitting a family of five than our little old square one. The new table is now assembled and ready to host us al fresco when it's not sweltering out like it was today. The other item was a Delta faucet I bought as the end result of my inquiry here (Leaking faucet in bathroom sink) and which I will probably install sometime this week. I'm pleased at having bought an $80 faucet for about $30-something. I have no idea how people have all this stuff and pay retail prices for it.

 

[zannej]

Flyover, I've bought a few things on ebay and on sale from various sites. Waited for discounts or found coupons for things. It really has helped. We got a Delta faucet for my brother's bathroom. Mom has a Moen. I'm switching out my AquaSource one to a Pfister.
I picked up my medicine. Saw another angry person arguing with the pharmacist. She whined that she doesn't use this pharmacy because of whatever issue was happening. but there she was taking up a place of another customer at this pharmacy. She started saying how she should go somewhere else and the pharmacist politely invited her to use a different pharmacy if she wanted. He then aske her where in the hospital she worked and she answered (I can't remember) and he made small talk about it to be nice to her. She calmed down a little but still left angry because it was going to take 30min to fill her rx. I picked up my RX and it was less expensive than the generic they gave me that made me sick. I also got them to fill the same type for my brother and waited the 30min for it to be ready.

I'm currently trying to find out more about contact cement options. There's a 3m Fastbond that doesn't grab right away and requires a little pressure to make it bond permanently. I want something like that in case something needs to be moved or have bubbles worked out when I put formica on Mom's counter. but 1qt of Fastbond is $51 and I only found it on ebay and amazon. I want something local (so it won't spill or dry up in transit) that has the same features. Any suggestions?

 

[Flyover]

@Spicoli43 you are going to love this.

Earlier when I said my dishwasher broke, what happened was it threw this error code that normally means the Waterwall (this is Samsung's idiotic linear version of a spray arm) was out of alignment. Only, I checked repeatedly and the Waterwall was installed properly, and nothing I did when following the troubleshooting instructions for that error code worked; at the end of this series Samsung (and other websites) indicated the problem is likely the motor.

Okay so I've been washing dishes by hand for our family of five every night. Each night it takes me about an hour, and that's even though we've temporarily switched to paper plates. (There's still kids' lunchboxes, pots and pans, utensils, coffee mugs, baby bottles, etc.) I was very excited for the repair guy to come out, and I calculated the price was going to be about half that of a new dishwasher.

Today the repair guy arrived, wearing a polo shirt with the Samsung logo on it. He walked in, scanned the S/N on the dishwasher, asked me what the problem was, and I told him the error code. He shone is flashlight inside the machine, looked in there for about 6 seconds, and started telling me what the code means. I indicated that I knew. He started telling me how the Waterwall works. I finished his sentence and he nodded his head, satisfied that I indeed knew this already. He started to point to where the motor is and I, having already watched a bunch of Youtube videos, once again indicated that I knew that's where the motor was.

He looked at me and said "I would have to replace that motor. That motor costs $500. This dishwasher costs $500. Do you see what I mean?"

I said yes, it means that I should just buy a new dishwasher. I asked him if he could expedite one from Samsung. He said it would be no faster or cheaper than if I just bought one on my own, and here's the part you'll love, Spicoli. He said:

"Get a Whirlpool. If they don't have Whirlpool, get an LG. And buy an extended warranty." He pointed at the logo on his shirt and said, "My shirt says Samsung. I am telling you, get a Whirlpool. If no Whirlpool, LG."

I immediately thought of you and laughed a whole lot (on the inside of course).

Then he found a way to enter the visit into his system so I got charged $0, and I thanked him and he left. That's gotta be the most honest repairman I have ever met.

Of course what I ended up doing was driving to the big box hardware store and finding out that a new dishwasher of any decent quality costs more like $700 to start with, with extra fees for delivery and installation on top of that, plus I'd have to wait two weeks!

So instead I found a scratch-and-dent that had only been returned because it didn't fit in the customer's house, a Frigidaire (same company as Whirlpool, I believe) that normally goes for $850 but was marked down to $200. Still has the styrofoam and protective tape on it. After a quick check with Youtube I confirmed that I could very easily install this thing myself, so I bought it, then went back with my wife's SUV to pick it up. It sits in my kitchen now and I will install it tomorrow. The $650 I saved is as good as an extended warranty in my eyes.

Plus who knows, maybe someone from Craigslist will take this old Samsung dishwasher off my hands for $50 or something.

 

[Spicoli43]

HAHAHA Yeah, I agree with the repair guy except no LG or Whirlpool or Whirlpool's Brother Maytag or GE... I have had all those dishwashers, and all are junk... As far as Frigidaire, they are solely owned by Electrolux.

I have a brand new Frigidaire True Convection Air Fry whoopdie dooptie Oven in the garage to replace my Samsung that was covered under warranty, but need a good air day to open the windows and burn off the chemicals they put on the heater elements. I got a 5 year extended warranty from HD for $160.

IF... And this is a Lottery IF... Frigidaire is a good Oven, I will look for other appliances they make.

I think you did real good, it doesn't matter if the thing only lasts a year for $200, but that low price would concern me.

 

[Eddie_T]

I usually watch the late news to see if we are at war yet and to get a weather update. I turned on the TV at 2300 (w/o turning on the sound system) and a basketball game was on. I thought it might end shortly so I just kept going with a state digital library book search. When the game ended they just started milling around with a split screen showing some talking heads. What caught my eye was how goofy everyone was acting especially the BB players. Weird head movements, funny faces, funny walking and body movements (even some strange solo dance steps). With no sound it was hilarious I gave up waiting for the news after about 30 minutes of utter foolishness.

 

[BuzzLOL]

Of course what I ended up doing was driving to the big box hardware store and finding out that a new dishwasher of any decent quality costs more like $700 to start with,

Repairman was prolly correct, $450 at 1 1/2 years ago last time he looked...
I'm still using my GE Potscrubber dishwasher from 1970's...

 

[zannej]

Flyover, I'm glad you were able to find a returned model for $200. They don't sell returned or floor models for any less than $400 in my area.
It's 92° and humid. "feels like 99°" according to weather.
My friend came out around 10 to start working on the satellite. Moved it to the tower. Too hot to get pics. But it is up and working. Took about 10 minutes for it to face the right direction and find a connection. It's a teeny bit slower than it was before but still a whole hell of a lot faster than our old connection so I'm happy. I'm about to see if it disconnects during gaming or if it has cleared the obstructions. I was worried the dogs would mess with stuff outside but then my brother pointed out they were inside looking out my bedroom window.
I'm already exhausted.

 

[Spicoli43]

Z... So, you're happy with the service comparatively, even though with the old you didn't have to mess with it every day?

The equipment for Elon Internet here was $500, now he wants $599... The monthly was $99, now he wants $110... Shipping is $50

Like I said before, he gets the equipment from China, probably Alibaba for $10 or less per set, guaranteed.

He could charge $500 and $50 a month for service forever and effectively kill off all the competition, which I would love, but I'm convinced his price hikes alone are just to fund his takeover of Tweety.

 

[Eddie_T]

Stained some more grout lines in the kitchen with walnut hull dye. I think I made a serious mistake · · · I should have used a dirt colored dye rather than a dark color. Maybe next time around I'll just saturate grout with linseed oil and let it collect dust.

I used to be able to right click on an image and 'search google for image' would appear as one of the options in the dialog box. Did that go away when I went to duckduckgo?