The Artful Detective

My DH is very fond of this Canadian series, shown here on the Ovation channel.  I bought the first 7 seasons for his Christmas gift, and he has been viewing them non-stop, I think, since then.  My only problem is the grating music at the beginning of every episode; it is like fingernails on a blackboard.  So I have retreated to another room and writing this.

The weather here continues to be frigid, but has warmed up somewhat from Wednesday.  It should be above freezing by Sunday, I hope.  Meanwhile we are *still* fighting the Invasion of the Stinkbugs.  How they can get inside when it is so cold outside and they are dormant during the cold?  I hate them.  They buzz around clumsily and, of course, stink. They make me creep.

The washing machine gave out last week and is still unrepaired, due to the terrible road conditions, but hopefully the repairman will come today.  It made a fast beep sound and flashed a dC code (meaning what?  It's a puzzle).  When I opened it, the load contained a small throw rug as well as other items, so I took the rug out and used the "spin only" to remove the water. BUT and it is a big but, the washer never stopped adding water.  We ran another load, and it filled the entire tub up in minutes. We dipped the 20+ gallons out of it, just before it would have overflowed, and shut off the water at the wall.  Sheesh!  I so don't want another flood.  We called the repair guy, but the road that has to be traveled has a steep uphill part.  Update:  the repairman came on Friday at last (tho the road was still bad), and the diagnosis is, get another washer.  This one needed $500 in parts, plus labor to repair.  We will put that toward a new machine.

  The Toyota Highlander broke down on Wednesday and is still unrepaired, and no diagnosis on what is wrong.  DH had gone to get R at work (because her car needs new tires to navigate in this snow) at 8 pm and couldn't get the car to restart, once it was shut off at the pharmacy, and it flashed all sorts of diagnosis codes.  Son C had to go pick them up, leaving the car in the CVS pharmacy parking lot for the tow truck to get to in the morning.  Then for some reason, god only knows why, they towed the car to Fairmont, about 20 miles away, to a Dodge dealer.  I remind you, this is a 2014 Toyota?  It took one entire day to locate the car and then bring it back.  When we finally got it back on Saturday from the local Toyota dealer, the only diagnosis was "bad battery".  This will make the third battery replacement since we got the car, new, 10 months ago.

So we have been stuck here without good wheels, and waiting for the washer repairman (and now the delivery of the new washer) to perhaps arrive.  I am getting cabin fever, but not bad enough to go out in this cold if I don't have to.  And of course, if the washer is repaired, there is all that accumulated laundry to do.  I can hardly wait.

I am working on organizing my yarn stash, which is growing as we speak, it seems.  So far I have it divided into solid colors and variegated ones, and then into chunky and light weights.  I need a craft room, which I won't get until the kid(s) move out.  Like that will ever happen.  It is true that the knitting machines use up yarn very quickly, but I need to move beyond hats, scarves, and baby blankets/afghans.  I sure could use another knitter familiar with these machines, but I can make do with youtube demonstrations if I have to.  I will post a photo or two once I get it all organized.  I regularly read a forum for knitters, Knitting Paradise, and there are a lot of people on it that can answer questions or give guidance, and I have posted several topics as I go along.  I just wish it could be face-to-face.

Thought for the day:  "My life is filled with wonder; I wonder where I parked the car, I wonder where I left my glasses....."