Kevin Standlee: Fandom Is My Way of Life

There are two working bathrooms in Fernley House. (The upstairs bathroom plumbing has never worked because the previous owner ruined it, and we've never prioritized the substantial cost of fixing it.) One of the two bathroom's toilets backed up last week, and none of the things I tried worked. The toilet in the other bathroom has been a problem because the flapper valve was leaking continuously and I couldn't find any part at Lowe's that would replace it.

Until a few years ago, I would have called the plumbing company for which Steve-the-Plumber worked and they'd fix it. But that company was sold, and at that time Steve retired from it. He now maintains stuff for a bunch of houses in Yerrington, where he lives. (No more having to drive to Fernley or Tonopah for jobs.) I called him (he still cleans our chimney once a year) and asked his advice. After discussing it, I called a local plumbing company. It wasn't an emergency, so I made an appointment for which they could get to us on Monday.

On Monday during the window promised, the plumber arrived. Using a power auger, he got the rear bathroom toiled unplugged. I was worried that we had a frozen drain, but it was just a stubborn clog.

For the forward bathroom toilet, he said he'd go to Lowe's and buy the necessary part. It took longer than expected, and explained why I couldn't find anything: instead of putting it with the other toilet parts, Lowe's had it on an end-cap an aisle away. But anyway, he installed the replacement part and (aside from having a whole lot of cleaning left to do on the rear toilet), we're mostly back in business. The cost, including parts, was less than $200.

The toilet seat in the forward bathroom broke last month, and Lowe's no longer carries the replacement that we want. We need to find the time to go look at places in Reno. We can get by, however.

Before we left for Fallon, I had put a load of laundry on. After we got the swamp cooler running, I went to take the laundry upstairs. (We typically hang our laundry out to dry on a rack upstairs unless we need it dryer sooner. In our low-humidity climate, it works well.) Except that I discovered that the laundry had not run, and the lights were out in the utility room, rear bathroom, and the family room.

( Better Call Lisa )

We saddled up for yet another trip out (our third today) to run to Lowe's which was about to close. We bought two breakers so we would have a spare and went home quickly so we could try to work on the breaker box before we lost the light, although we did end up needing our flashlights.

As Lisa started to work, I reminded her to throw the main breaker first; she was so intent on fixing things that she'd forgotten to do so. She then started to remove the bottom-most breaker, and got a nasty surprise when it mildly shocked her. That should not have happened, not with the main breaker off. She made sure every breaker was off and gingerly tested it again, and things were now cold.

Unfortunately, those breakers are old, and the bottom one broke as she was starting to remove it. Then she realized that she'd picked out the wrong type of breaker. Our box uses the older-style "Zinsco" circuit breakers. We'll have to take these breakers back tomorrow and return them and see about getting some of the older type. This will probably be a special order, although I see that they can still get them.

So this leaves us with a couple of rooms in the house dark for now. Fortunately, as the washer only runs on 110V current, Lisa was able to run an extension cord into the next room where there is a live outlet and I could get the laundry done. I needed a flashlight to get upstairs to hang up the laundry, but the upstairs itself is on a different circuit and the lights were working up there. This is a nuisance, not a crisis.

Thus ends our adventures in home repairs for now, but it looks like there will be more tomorrow. I'm certainly glad that I have no early-morning commitments on Saturday.

Yesterday, we ordered some of the parts for the ignition system in the Rolling Stone. They arrived in Fernley this morning, and this afternoon we went to collect them.

( What We Got )

The one part we need but that neither O'Reilly nor NAPA Auto Parts was able to find was the ignition condenser, but NAPA found it online and determined that it is more properly a Ford E0TZ-18832-A Radio Capacitor Assembly. NAPA doesn't stock it, but thanks to what they found for us, we found exactly one left in stock at one place online. There are other similar ones out there that might work, but Lisa would prefer to get parts that are exact matches, on the ground that they are more likely to fit and to do the right job.

When we got home, I ordered this part: $50 including shipping; however, I agree with Lisa that it's better to have the right part if you can get it rather than some half-baked thing that might do the job just to save some money.

I had to call the dealership to get the mileage from the Astro because I got the renewal notice for the DMV, and Nevada requires that you report the mileage at renewal. It appears that I should have called them sooner, and that rather than them calling me to get approval for the repairs, I was supposed to call them.

It appears that the only repairs to the air conditioning that they did was to reconnect the disconnected heater and cooling lines to the rear. There are a whole lot of things that need to replaced on the A/C, and it's apt to cost close to another $2000. Ouch. But driving across the desert without air conditioning is no fun at all, as I found coming back from Winnipeg last summer.

It got just barely cold enough last night for the rain to turn into a little bit of snow.

( Still )

Yesterday afternoon, Lisa and I went to Lowe's price what a ladder long enough to reach the upper roof would cost. It's not cheap. Lisa will also need to dig out the safety harness and the rope we used on the house in Mehama, and will need to figure a way to get a line over the roof so that we can tie it to a tree on the opposite side of the house. Only then will Lisa feel secure in going up there and fixing the join and probably making other corrections to that gutter.

As I mentioned shortly after we got the Astro back from the dealership, the air conditioning made cold air for a few minutes, then stopped working, as all of the coolant leaked out. Today after work, Lisa and I convoyed down to Yerrington once again and turned the vehicle back over to Wild West Chevrolet. I hope they can fix it. Everything else they did was fine: the vehicle runs much better and handles great. No more odd sounds, engine lights, or wobbles. It just doesn't make cold air.

Last year's trip would have been so much better if the van had run like this (and if the A/C had worked).

Getting a long enough ladder to reach the upper floor of the house proved to take longer than the roofer had expected, so he did not get to work until the afternoon.

( Jobs 1 and 2 Done )

With the light failing, he called it a night and told me that he would be back to, we hope, finish the job today.

Yesterday afternoon, Lisa and I drove to Sparks to collect the Rolling Stone from Big O Tires. I paid $1539 for major brake repairs. To my annoyance, I discovered after I got home that they hadn't deducted the $25 discount from the coupon offer I gave them when I checked it in. You would think they could at least give me that.

( Back Home Again )

Since we were in Sparks anyway, we went to WinCo Foods for grocery shopping. I wish we had not done so and had put it off until the wee hours of Saturday morning as we often do. The queues were huge. I think we spent more time queued than we did actually shopping, even after Lisa sent me to get in line while she took a second cart to get other things. We spent the queue time trading off while one or the other of us went back to get things we'd initially forgotten.

After WinCo, we went to Raley's to get some higher-quality things that we cannot get at WinCo.

We like WinCo, but it's essentially too popular to shop there during daytime hours. While standing in the queue, I told Lisa, "Next time, we'll come shopping at 2 AM Saturday," and the person in line ahead of us was astonished to learn that the store is open 24 hours a day. It only says so in big letters on the outside of the building.

For the 2 1/2 months that the minivan was in the shop, I had to use the Rolling Stone as my "runabout," a role for which it is not at all suited. On top of its horrible gas mileage (about 8.5 mpg), it has needed a brake job since before the Astro went into the shop. Now that I have the Astro back, it was time to get to work on the RV. A discount coupon from Big O that arrived in yesterday's mail may help cut the cost somewhat.

After work this afternoon, Lisa and I convoyed in to Sparks, and I turned the keys over to them. I made it clear that I assumed this would take several days, and besides, I don't want to have to come back to Reno/Sparks until the storms that are moving in tomorrow have passed.

Lisa and I did some grocery shopping in the Astro since we were in town anyway. We balked at WinCo, where the queues were huge. (There's a reason we normally only got to WinCo during the wee hours.) Raley's had enough for us to supplement what's already in our larder, so we headed for home.

We did have an annoying setback with the Astro on the way into Sparks, about which I'll write tomorrow. It looks like the repairs on the minivan aren't over yet.

After I got off work this afternoon, we drove to Yerrington (with a stop at Wabuska where we got enough material for an episode of RLMS) and paid the nearly $7,000 for the repairs for the Astro. On the bright side, I'll get a lot more IHG points for this, and I can pay the credit card bill with the liquidated ESOP, the money for which arrived in my account last week.

( Collecting the Minivan )

So all seemed well until we neared home. Lisa was leading our two-car convoy at this point, and we were running our headlights in a daylight safety section. Lisa reported that the left front headlight on the Rolling Stone was out. I said that I could not see her tail lights, although the brake lights were fine.

When we got home, we confirmed that while the minivan's headlights, brake lights, and turn indicators are working, none of the marker lights, fore or aft, are working. She checked the fuse, which appeared to be intact. This is very annoying, as it means we can't legally operate the vehicle at night or in other conditions when we should be running with the lights on.

Lisa and I went over to O'Reilly Auto Parts and got a replacement headlight for the RV, which Lisa installed, so we have at least one vehicle that is road legal.

The dealership said they did not do anything to the lights. Lisa says that she'll get out the Astro's shop manual and see if she can figure out what is wrong and maybe we can fix it ourselves; otherwise, it will be another hundred-mile round trip to Yerrington to see if the dealership can fix it.