School Holiday project

Science project with observer
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken

Why is it that everything falls apart at once?

First up it was the central heating, in October. Fortunately we didn't need it much to heat the house, but I do use the fan in the summer to cool in the evenings. I rang the guy to come and fix it, and he failed to do so for the next 6 months, until I gave up and got someone else in. It's pretty much terminal - the fan has busted, and the circuit board won't be far behind, so we need to replace the whole thing.

Next up was the back door. It was a cheap hollow-core number and the surfaces separated from the insides one morning after it had been moist overnight. Fortunately we were able to staple it back together for a few weeks until the new one was ready.

The third thing to go was the TV. It was one that my dad had handed on to me. I realised recently that at the age of 38 I have never bought a TV set. So it was about 10 years old when we got it 4 years ago, and the tube was suddenly starting to go flickery. Again, fortunately I knew that my dad had again upgraded, and had a spare TV set, so I rang him and the beloved went around to pick it up. He bought dad and the TV home for dinner and they set it up. Strangely the video, through which the set top box was routed, refused to power up, and continued to refuse to work, so I pulled out the TV (no mean feat, it's bloody heavy) and unplugged the set top box and plugged it in differently.

Later my mum and stepfather came around to help get some order into the house, since the beloved has gone away for 3 weeks, leaving in a hurry and leaving boxes and other things I can't move all over the place. I got them to take away the old TV and they were going to take the VCR, until I said "wait, it's school holidays. I know someone who would like to take that apart" and behold, we have a project. Lucky really, since I've been falling apart too. I have a cold and would rather be asleep than entertain a 7 year old.

Of course the other thing to bust has been the toilet. It's not too bad at this point, but it's only a matter of time I'm sure. I guess it's just the house's way of telling us it's time to renovate. Bad timing. There's no way we can get it done before the baby is due, but we need the heater pretty soon!