The end of last week proved to be somewhat troublesome for me, with extra work and annoying problems…
I was dog sitting by myself for several days, so I had to be there for Duncan much of the time and walk him quite a bit. He wanted to go out even when it got very cold and snowy and seemed to want to go long distances in the new neighborhood around my house, even when I was just trying to take him for a pee in the back yard. I walked a lot the one day.
My furnace did its misbehavior thing twice, where it just won’t get past the first stage of startup and thus won’t heat the house. I cleaned out the hoses and trap the one time and was able to get it going the first time. But then after a while it happened again and cleaning didn’t help. My house got down to about 68F and I had to leave. So I left the furnace going (it retries the startup every once in a while when it’s in this state), shut off the water, set my two electric heaters going, and heat up some pots and buckets of water strategically placed. I left it like this for over 24 hours as I went to my parents house for Duncan and then to work. Luckily, by the time I got back, the furnace had resolved its issue through cycling and was back up to temperature.
However, I heard some water trickling. I found my second toilet, which I rarely use, was running continuously. I went down to the basement to shut it off and noticed water dripping through the ceiling. So I went back up and found that the toilet was running because water was dripping out through a rotted away gasket for the bolts at the bottom of the tank. So I drained the tank and, because that valve doesn’t shut 100% anymore, I had to prop the float valve up to stop it from there. I also put a jar under the bolt to catch any more dripping through my floor. Later, when I had more time, I was able to find a new gasket in a box of mixed bathroom gaskets I had bought previously and get it properly stopped.
Over the weekend, it snowed quite a bit and got quite cold, in the low teens F. I had to shovel my drive a few times, as well as my parents’ when I went back over there later. Had to clean off the car as well. Lots of work over two days and I felt somewhat worn after that and everything else.
I shoveled my drive before the snow plow came by. When it came by, it left a berm of snow in front of my drive like it always does. Since my drive proper was still pretty good and I had to clean off my car at that point, I forgot about the plow berm as I backed out and went right through it. I didn’t notice right away as I drove off, but this must’ve broke my exhaust, for I noticed during the drive that it was loud. I haven’t dealt with that issue yet and am driving with a loud exhaust. Should be able to get it fixed for the third time now at Market Muffler for $70-80, which isn’t bad as car things go, but still annoying.
A lot for a 4-5 day period.