I had a very productive day off yesterday, even though it started off very badly.
On my way home in the morning two days ago, my cell phone decided to quit. It would intermittently power itself off, then would get stuck in a "boot loop", never finishing the boot up. If you removed the battery for a while, it would start to work again, but each subsequent crash occurred sooner and lasted longer until I couldn't get it to boot up at all.
I read in some forums that a trick to be able to get it to boot up long enough to be able to back up data to the removable sd card was to put it in the freezer for 10 minutes. That worked, but as soon as it began to warm up, the damn thing would crash again. So, there I am sitting at the kitchen counter, backing up files on my phone which was sitting on a baggie of ice cubes.
I went online to Verizon wireless and found out that I still owed $170 on the phone, and it was out of warranty. OK, so, at least I was able to save pictures and other files I wanted, but now I figured that I had to bite the bullet and after paying off the old phone, start paying off a new one (around $800) for another 2 years.
When I got home, my wife informed me that the attic furnace wasn't working, so I put a call into the service guys. Fortunately, it's very warm here so we don't need it fixed until the guys can show up next week. Plus, the basement furnace was working OK, and that can heat the house somewhat if needed.
Then, just as I was falling asleep, I hear my wife cursing like a sailor. Apparently, the clothes washing machine crapped out. I wasn't draining after the wash cycles. So I got up and looked into the error codes displayed on the machine. I found instructions on cleaning out a pre-filter and went ahead to try to clean it out. Lo and behold, a dime was jammed in the filter along with bits of scotch tape. I thought that would do it, but unfortunately, that didn't fix the problem. So DW immediately began researching new washers to buy. I figured there went another grand or so.
Anyway, with all of these things going wrong, I decided to take yesterday off and see if I could get anything fixed. I first poked and prodded and did everything that I could to get the washing machine to work. Just as I was about to give up and go out with DW to buy a new one, I decided to check the output hose for kinks or clogs. Viola'! Another dime and more scotch tape were stuck in a small kink in the hose. Not only did the machine start working again, but instead of buying a new one, I made 20 cents.
Next, I brought my phone to Verizon to see if there was anything that they could do. After the kid in the store had no luck with it either, I started looking at new phones but got distracted by some home security camera systems. I asked so many questions that the manager eventually came over to help. I think he thought that I was ready to buy a big camera system, so as a courtesy he put my cell phone under an extended warranty for $11 a month, then put in a request for a replacement.
As soon as that was done, he went full court press on the camera system, but I explained that I already have one but will probably be back to buy one of the new cameras that have two way audio to add on to my system.
When I got home from Verizon, I got some yard work done, then took a look at the attic furnace. It appears that the igniter is shot, which is an easy fix. I wasn't about to mess with a liquid propane system like I used to with the oil burner in our old house, but at least I know that it won't be a big deal for the service guys to repair it.
By the end of the day, the washing machine was fixed, I had a new cell phone on the way, the yard work is almost all done (cored and aerated, just need to add seed), and the only expense will be the igniter repair.
Minus 20 cents.