Things seemed to go to hell in a handbasket this week. When it rains, it pours. Or if it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all (- gloom, despair and agony on me). Take your pick or use your own to describe bad news and hemorrhaging money. Hang on, it's another long one.
On Wednesday afternoon I got vaccinated; the flu, covid and pneumonia shots. Flu and covid in the left shoulder and pneumonia in the right. As expected the next day, I had T. Rex arms due to my shoulders hurting so much and I generally felt like hell with joint pain, a cloudy head and a general feeling of sick and tired. This happens every year now with the covid shot, but I've had covid like 4 times now and it's worth one day of sickness to possibly not get or get shut down by covid again.
So Thursday was spent at home on a sick day, putting off things that needed to be done. One of those things was scheduling my car to get into the shop for an oil change, replace the shocks, and most likely new brakes. An expensive list this time, but it needs to be done. Then my wife got home Thursday afternoon and told me that on the way home her check engine light went on. She had parked in the driveway and it had been raining all day, so when she left her van she noticed quite the rainbow underneath, indicating a leak of some sort, so she got back in and pulled it onto the street. I was still feeling too sick to go out and look things over so I just called the service center right away and got it booked in for Monday morning, but we still had to get to then.
Early Friday morning I got up extra early to take her to work, but we had to have her car off the street for street cleaning that day. I pulled my car out then watched as she pulled her van in. There was a large spot of leakage on the road where she was parked and a robust trail left as she pulled in to the driveway. This really can't be good, and meant we should have it towed to the shop rather than try to drive it.
I still had time after dropping her off before I had to go to work, so I went back home to do a few things. It was then I hear a weird hum for a bit when I was in the kitchen. I thought it was maybe the refrigerator, but when I smelled something I had to check the furnace. I checked the thermostat and the furnace should have been running, but wasn't. So I reset everything and made it so the furnace should kick in again, then went downstairs to observe. The furnace started, I heard the gas ignite, then everything shut down. I did that twice with the same result, so I cut power to it all and went to work. Coincidentally, the coming night was to be our first below freezing.
When I got to work I texted my wife about it, discussed with some friends there, and decided it was in my best interest to have it looked at as soon as possible rather than wait to look at it again when I got home. I called a local company that I had known of and had a good feeling about but had not researched because had no time, and thankfully they could be out after I got home that afternoon.
Our furnace is from 1985, and our air conditioner is of similar age. The service man was an older gentleman who had been doing this for 45 years, he said. He knew exactly what he was looking at and did not like it. First, the blower fan was going out, which explains the squeaks we've heard from it off and on recently and why it wouldn't run when it got too warm, which apparently happened that morning. He also pointed out where exhaust had been leaking into the house and why. And why our nearby CO detectors did not go off - apparently they don't go off until it's almost too late and these smaller amounts of exhaust weren't enough set it off. We always knew we would need a new furnace at some point, and it seems we had now reached that point. When we bought the house in 2009 it had a 1 year warranty so we were hoping both the furnace and central air would die within that time, but they lasted 17 more years, until now. No, nothing really seems wrong with the central air except it's age, but it behooves us to replace it at the same time as the furnace.
The service man left us with two portable heaters that have actually come in handy, and we had one already so despite it getting below freezing overnight we've warmed the house with them and the sun today, though the outside temperature only got into the 50's ºF. On Monday there will be someone out from that service company to discuss our options, and prices, to replace both the furnace and central air. Hopefully we can get a reasonable price and have them both replaced very quickly.
At least we found out now, before got really cold in proper Wisconsin winter.
Still, some major financial hits for us in a short period of time. We will still owe a significant amount for the roof, more later. We'll have to pay for towing and an unknown amount to repair my wife's van. A new furnace, installed and with new A/C is going to be huge. And known to be significant, expensive repairs still needed to my car.
On Sunday, my wife will use my car to get to work and back so I will be stuck at home unless I walk somewhere for lunch, which is still possible. Then I have a scheduled day off on Monday that I took off originally because I had the time off to take and the Packers play on Sunday night. Since then, coincidentally, my wife also has her first back shot scheduled on Monday morning, so I'll be taking her like she's taken me for the same thing about a half a dozen times or so. She's hoping we can go out to lunch after, but she hasn't had one of these before so we'll see how she feels at that time. Later Monday afternoon the guy will be coming to discuss our furnace options, too.
Right now, I'm waiting for a call from the towing company saying their on their way to come get the van to the shop. I told them it just has to be by Monday morning, but they will likely come get it yet tonight. Probably during an important part of the Badger game this evening, with my luck. After the van is finished I will set a date with them for my car to go in for its needed repairs, and I'll need a loaner for the 2-3 days they have my car then.
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| Edit: They called a few minutes after posting this. You can see the trail of what he confirmed to be transmission fluid, leaking significantly. Really nice guy, though. A fellow Badger fan, and that game kicked off only a few minutes later. |
At least we had a very productive day so far. We spent a few hours this morning doing needed yard work and fall cleanup outside. I spent all that time, among other things, picking up nuts, breaking up sticks for the firepit and mowing the leaves into the lawn. The gardens got some cleanup, as did the sunflowers, and the gnomes and garden decorations were cleaned up and put away. I thought I'd write about this more since we did it all this morning, but these recent events were obviously more worthy of writing about, since this is where I ended up.
Well, that was a lot. I had a New Roof II update to share as well, and I could but I will now wait a few days on that. Perhaps I'll have a meaningful response from them by then that I can share, as well. And the Brewers swept the Dodgers and are going to the World Series! I'm sure I'll have something to say about that later, too.
But for now, some tough, expensive weeks to come. No doubt I'll have more to say about it all later.
Hope your weekend and week is better and cheaper than ours, all. Cheers!
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