Day 2812

The refrigerator is working again. I was amazed that I was able to get an appliance repairman to come out the same day I called. The two guys who showed up were older and knew their stuff. It turned out that I had a faulty thermostat which prevented the automatic defrost circuit from working properly, causing the evaporator coils to become frozen in a block of ice. After the coil was thawed out, the fridge worked like a charm. The guys will have to come back next week to install the two new thermocouple thermostats they ordered, but they said the coil wouldn't have time to freeze again before they returned. I'm glad we didn't buy a new refrigerator. As it turned out, there wasn't that much wrong with this one.

I got lucky with the refrigerator, but I can't say the same about the roof. As I continue my repairs, I'm discovering that the roofing crew did a really lousy job of applying the previous patches. Instead of peeling away all the damaged elastomer and letting the surface underneath dry thoroughly, they just poured the new elastomer material on top on the old. As a result, when the elastomer cured, it trapped moisture underneath that could never escape. I always wondered how the roofing crews could make their repairs so quickly. Now I know. They just did a sloppy job. Now, I'm faced with making much more extensive repairs than I had planned. If you're thinking of buying a cool looking mid-century modern home with a flat roof, try to resist the urge. A flat roof is nothing but trouble.

Dash's vet wants to increase his phenobarbital dose. I was afraid of this. She says that his current dose doesn't provide enough protection anymore and that it could lead to seizures again. At least the increase isn't huge. He was taking a one grain tablet twice a day. Now, he'll be taking 1 and 1/4 grains twice a day. We'll do another blood test in six weeks to see if this puts him back in the safe zone. I hope the additional phenobarbital won't make him too sleepy or lethargic. He spends too much time sleeping as it is.

I went to a nearby service station to get a few bags of ice so the food in the freezer wouldn't go bad when the repairmen were working. I asked the guy at the register whether they still had a good supply of gasoline and he said they were almost out again. Jeez. The tanker truck had just filled them up two days ago. I topped my tank up again, just in case.

Now that people have realized how easy it is for an entire city to run out of gasoline, I think a lot more people are going to be driving around with full tanks instead of tempting fate with a gas gauge near empty. Every time there is a power outage or a weather emergency I try to become a little more prepared. I have lots of fresh batteries. I have a generator. It just occurred to me that the little dorm room refrigerator we just got will easily run on a generator. That's good. I can't afford large scale solar power, but that's definitely on my fantasy wish list.

Pick your poison. Maybe it's climate change. Maybe it's Kim Jong-un. Maybe it's back-to-back monster hurricanes. Why do I get this nagging feeling that Armageddon is just around the corner? I hope I'm wrong. I'd much rather spend my remaining years wandering around the streets of Paris than living in a cave somewhere.

Allie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day