Breakdowns and repairs

"Gunk, gunk, gunk, gunk, gunk . . . . "

That's the sound my refrigerator began making on Monday.

It is already running on a controller motor that Bill put in back in August when it made some dying, gasping sounds just before the Greater Cleveland Triathlon. The night before the race, my arm brushed the center strip and it was HOT! The damn fan gave out, so Bill patched this "temporary" option together. Great, he's out of town and I'm distracted by "gunk, gunk, gunk, gunk, gunk . . ".

Thankfully, he got home Tuesday and last night he replaced it with a different motor. So now, periodically it sounds like we are preparing for takeoff when this new one kicks on. He's ordering a new refrigerator fan today, I think.

The good times continue . . . . my wedding band is one with the channel setting holding 8 diamonds. I've never had an issue with my engagement ring or wedding band in the 11 years we've been married. But Tuesday, I was gesturing wildly in my usual communication mode and I noticed the band had a mark down the center. So upon closer inspection, it is CRACKED IN HALF!! I have no idea how this happened. In fact, Mr. Jeweler said it is pretty rare. Of course, I'm already on the hook for the re-pronging of my Mother's Day ring. Who knew that you had to re-tip, re-prong, re-whatever the settings periodically?? Had I known, I'm sure I wouldn't have gone with a setting with 20 small diamonds and about 40,000 prongs. The cost is per prong -- of course.

My heel pain has been getting worse instead of better. I'm trying to stay on pace with my 800 mg. ibuprofen and have amped up the stretching. Tuesday night, I really felt a bad stretch, followed by pain when I was standing on the boys' beds and putting glow-in-the-dark stars all over their ceiling. I secretly hoped I had performed my own little fasciotomy, but I'm sure it would have been a lot worse. Tomorrow I'm planning to run for the first time in weeks and we'll see how it goes.

Well, the good news is that the fireplace mantle is almost ready. It is at least ready for stockings, which has been my requirement all along. The fireplace fiasco goes back to July 4th when I returned from our ride after losing Bill and our friend, Rich. As I was drinking coffee and enjoying the fruits of my workout (ok, bagel, but "bagel of my workout" just sounds weird), everything crashed down from the wall above the fireplace. Long story short, water had been seeping between the chimney for years, carpenter ants had found a comfy home there, and we needed the chimney repaired. After getting ripped off by some fly-by-night masonry guy, we decided to put in a gas fireplace with surrounding faux stone. Thankfully, Bill has done nearly all the work including running the gas line from the basement to the fireplace. The major issue is that I wanted a stone mantle instead of wood. Well, they make the stone mantles in 5' sections. The space between our two built-in bookcases is (you can guess pretty well right now . . . .) 5'3". So we devised a plan to use the hearth stones cut in half to "make" a stone mantle. Now Bill is carrying out my little plan. He is so amazing at the things he is able to do. I am so thankful -- truly!!

Please though, no more breakdowns . . . this is pushing my limit of funds and patience . . .