Confessions of a Grandma

It's nice to own rather than rent until something doesn't work and there's no property manager to call. I tried the dishwasher for the first time and...nothing.  Water filled the bottom and then didn't drain.  The motor whirred and whined and got smokin' hot.  The dishes remained dry and dirty. Fortunately, Mike will always try to fix things himself if involves plumbing, mechanical or electrical tinkering.  More importantly, he's good at it.  He has the ability to look at these things and figure out how they should work, then problem solve what's not working and how to get it to do what some design engineer intended.   He did some research on line, never having fixed a dishwasher before, then took off the foot plate and reached underneath.  It took him a few trips back and forth to the computer, but he got it running like new.  Voila!  We have a working dishwasher. Mike is not so confident with projects involving wood, but I really wa...

Okay, after my family Christmas gathering a few years ago, I was loading up the dish washer. It was quite late. I was quite tired. I had been planning, and shopping, and cooking for a few days. The party was pleasant. I enjoyed a glass of wine (or two, or maybe even three) throughout the evening. Mike was going to bed, but I wanted to get the dish washer started. He watched me squirt the Dawn dish washing liquid into the dish washing machine and apparently had the thought that something was not right but only managed to say, "see you in the morning." I went downstairs (we live in a raised range style house) to sit by the dwindling fire in our den, sip that last glass of wine, and reflect on the satisfaction of a family that can get together, share a meal , and have a nice time enjoying each others' company. I remember that the 11 o'clock news was coming on when I started to hear "drip, drip, drip." I went to investigate and saw water dripping from t...