The van wouldn’t start this morning. At first the general consensus was that it was the starter. We left the van alone for awhile. The day went on and it sat in the sun, I wouldn’t say that it warmed up a great deal, but it did go up by several degrees. I figured I’d give it another go and the van started up. Starters aren’t necessarily affected by the cold, so now I’m thinking battery. The automotive shop confirmed it, and it is fixed.
The windshield wipers stopped working. I had to make an appointment and go down to the shop with my car in order to get it looked at.
It turned out that the motor has a fail safe where if it’s under too much pressure, due to say ice or something else blocking it, then the arm, that I assume makes the wipers move, actually detaches itself. I really need to learn to fix this one by myself instead of having to take it to a shop, because if all it involves is really reattaching an arm that isn’t broke, but simply just popped off in order to keep the motor from burning out then I could probably do that myself.
The microwave finally gave out. It had a good run. I really thought it was going to kick the bucket when the hum it always made started to get louder and louder over the last year. Now it’s only good for timing things, and since I already have a timer I don’t need it in my kitchen.
I am going to scrounge up all the gift cards I can from this holidays and hopefully get a new one. While I’m not a big fan and could certainly live without the microwave it’s my Grandmother and the kids who desperately want it. I like how things taste out of the oven.
I have a good feeling about this year. There are a lot of things that are supposed to happen this year. I could potentially graduate this year, if I schedule right and get through all these classes. Eddy will be moving from grade school, to middle school.
There are many things that should happen. I should be making many more trips to Columbus. I should be getting a new hitch for my car and a new bike rack to make loading up the bikes for our trips this year a lot easier. The kids should get better at playing their respective instruments. We should have some awesome birthday’s and more holidays to celebrate.
I hope everyone has so much to look forward to in the new year!
Today I went ice skating, with Mariana, at the Kent Ice Arena. In a bit of a turn of irony I had actually never been there, and this is of course ironic, because I am a Kent State University graduate. It was the first time I had ever gone ice skating.
The first hurdle was to pick out the right skates. I tried the figure skating pair, but the hard plastic and the way they fit caused me to roll my ankle. This of course makes it both impossible to skate and painful. We had to take a break anyway, since the Zamboni had to make it’s rounds so I got the hockey pair. While these fit much looser they actually managed to make it far easier, which was originally the complete opposite of how I thought an ice skate should fit. I got the hang of it fairly well, which is to say I only fell once, and it was really fun.
Mariana and I went to Panera’s afterward and it’s always nice to get some hot soup on a day like today. It was a typical north east Ohio day and the rain and the general gloom of gray skies and cold made it a good idea.
Then it was on to her house for a little Christmas gift exchange. I got her a statue of a dragon, because she had mentioned that she liked dragons. Her gift to me though was without a doubt one of the coolest gifts that I have gotten in years. She got me the book “The Zen of Zombie” and it’s hilarious and with the word “zen” in the title there is some deeper meaning to the whole thing. I’ve already started reading it, and it is surely a book I want to finish.
Dell sent someone out and they fixed my laptop. That was fast. He was actually here on Tuesday. I wasn’t actually home at the time, but since I’ve had a few days to play around with it I think it works just fine. He left his business card. He called me after he was done and he said something that really sounded bizarre to me.
He said that there were a few screws missing, and he had to replace them. I haven’t personally taken the laptop apart, so the only time I had it serviced was at the University of Akron computer services. I don’t want to say it was them, but I don’t believe he was lying either. Wasn’t expecting that one.
My laptop isn’t working, but this time it’s a little more serious than a broken USB port on the side. I would have gone through the computer services at the university, but honestly it took about 2 weeks last time. While the guy I was working with did everything right and made sure everything was working I just don’t feel like I have that kind of time. I went ahead and called Dell.
Calling Dell is not much fun. First they asked me for a number off of my laptop, and I entered it in wrong, but no big deal right, because the prompt at the end reads back the number and says “is this correct?” and I can just answer “no”. Well, it wouldn’t turn out to be that easy at all. I said “no” the prompt said that it didn’t recognize what I said or something and this went on till I was finally transferred to a real human being who transferred me to technical support.
The technical support people were kind of hilarious. Here I am with a laptop that turns on, but doesn’t really do much else. The LED’s aren’t coming on and the keyboard doesn’t do anything. So, the steps were kind of completely inappropriate. Take for example asking me to open Microsoft Word or Notepad and type something in or restarting and hitting F2 at the Dell screen. Yeah, neither of those are going to work when the keyboard isn’t working.
It reminded me why I never want to do phone technical support again. This poor worker isn’t deviating from the script because they are incapable, it is because they probably get a hundred calls a week from people who don’t have a legitimate hardware problem and are just too stupid to restart their computer or something. It’s real and it’s not fun.
I am supposed to receive a phone call from a local tech who is going to come out and replace the motherboard, the keyboard, and the hard drive bracket, and that last thing is for something completely unrelated to today’s events.
The kids mother took them out to see a movie. She also got them dinner while they were out. They went and saw the latest Disney movie, Bolt, which seems like a neat movie and all, but I wasn’t going to be the one to take them. Especially with the cold I had yesterday.
Patty really wanted to see it, because Miley Cyrus did the voice for the little girl in the movie. Everyone had a great time and I didn’t have to do anything.
Netflix provided another good opportunity to sit down and watch a movie. My son, Andrew, and I all watched Get Smart, which is of course based on the television show, which spun off the cartoon show Inspector Gadget, which was all just a comedic take on the Bond movies in the first place.
The movie was terrific and I strongly suggest giving it a rent if you can. It was extremely funny.
We had a pretty good Thanksgiving this year. My neighbor gave us a larger table for the dining room than what we had, because they got a new one. I’ve had the table we threw out since… well since I can’t remember. It seems like I had that table for forever. I won’t miss it at all though, it had definitely run it’s course. We could all sit at the table without having to move anything around. That was really nice. I could even have a few people over and there would still be room.
I bought glasses this year, so we didn’t have to eat off or drink anything out of plastic. I find it to be a much better experience dining on more glassware, instead of having plastic.
The turkey was good, mash potatoes, gravy, and cranberry sauce, which is a personal must for me. Next year we won’t burn the marshmallows on top of the yams.