So, Winter Break was kind of a whirlwind for us this time around.
At the beginning of the break, one of our cars broke down. It still isn't fixed. The mechanics think that the computer is bad, but they can't be sure. No junk yard in the whole nation (as far as they can tell) has a used computer for this car. A new computer costs about $500. 2009 turned out to be a very expensive year for us (several car repairs, broken collar bone, tonsillectomy, dental work, new roof on the garage, my trip to Europe, many visits to the doctor by everyone in the family, etc.), and $500 is more than we have extra. So, we are trying to decide what to do about that. We could get a small loan and buy a used car. We're going to need to buy a car any way before the baby arrives in July, a car that will fit three car seats (our old Nissan Sentra only has room for two), so we may just bite the bullet and buy another car earlier than we had hoped. The only problems with this plan are that we had hoped to sell the Sentra and keep the car that broke down. It is much more versatile and useful than the Sentra. And we really don't like the idea of a loan. For now, I'm riding my bike to and from work while the weather is mild. It's about 17 miles round trip, and most of the way I have a wide shoulder or a paved path to ride on.
We also had a pipe break. In mid December, the temperature dropped to around zero for several nights in a row. Then it warmed up above freezing for several days in a row. One morning, we lost most of our water pressure, and, after some investigation, found that a little river of water was running up from between several cracks in the flagstone patio in front of our house. I shut off the water at the street, pried up some rocks, and started digging. I won't go into details, because it really would be boring to read, but I spent about ten hours digging in heavy, sticky mud. It took me a while to find the pipe, which meant I tore up much more of the patio than I needed to. After I found it, I repaired the pipe, only to throw a shovel full of dirt (and a rock) on it, only to have the hidden rock snap the pipe in two again. When everything was finally repaired, I filled the hole back in with mud and tried my best to reassemble the stones and mortar. But there will be a large, uneven area in front of our front door until the summer heat dries out the ground and I can re-set the stones.
Not too long after that, we raced up to spend a day in Spokane with Elizabeth's sister and her family. Their house, in stark contrast to ours, is large and uncluttered. The kids sort of disappear into various rooms, and the adults can talk, which is quite refreshing. And it is always fun hanging out with Vanessa, Corey, and their kids. We had a gift exchange which I always both look forward to and dread. I look forward to it because they always give us a whole bunch of great gifts. I dread it because Elizabeth and I have to think for a long time to come up with a gift for them that they might like, and we usually end up giving them one or two gifts that, in comparison to what they give us, seem so underwhelming.
Our stay with them was short because that night, my oldest sister and her two teenage twin boys, along with my oldest brother, two of his teenage kids, and my dad, came to spend Christmas with us. Everyone except my dad drove up from Phoenix. They picked up my dad in Burley, Idaho. They stayed for a few days, and it was really fun having them here. We went sledding, walking, snipe hunting, and driving around looking at Christmas lights. The teenagers drove the little lawn tractor all over the yard and the neighborhood pulling each other in the little trailer. They also fired up the chainsaw and cut up some old limbs that we used to build a fire with. Sonora really enjoyed spending time with her Aunt Kristinia and cousin Sirrina, who became sort of surrogate mothers to her (Elizabeth was sort of missing in action most of the time due to her nearly constant pregnancy nausea). My dad, brother and I spent a lot of time bonding in the kitchen cooking together. And all of us hung out together to talk, watch movies, open gifts, and eat. It was really enjoyable to be with them.
However, the evening before they were to leave to visit my sister in Richland, Washington, our sewer backed up. And I mean backed up. Be glad I didn't take any pictures of the contents of the bathtub. After I churned up the sewage in my vain attempts to plunge loose the obstruction, it looked as if 25 people had hung their backsides over the edge of the tub and relieved themselves of a whole gut full of diarrhea. This made the bath tub and the whole house rather fragrant. We had new rules that night: No one may use the toilet; No one may run any water down any drain; and of course No one may shower (not that anyone would have wanted to). The plants got an extra portion of urine that night. And the next morning, my family members left rather expeditiously. I feel sort of sorry for the toilet of whatever gas station they first stopped at. In my quest to unplug the sewer line, I plunged and plunged, I bought a sewer snake and, after removing the toilet to better access to the pipes, tried unsuccessfully to make it reach the clog, I wormed around on my belly under the house and covered myself in dust and insulation trying to knock the clean out valve loose (though I'm sort of glad it didn't budge because I wouldn't have been able to move out of the way of the sewage that would have gushed out all over my arms, face, and body). Finally, I called Roto Rooter. The guy didn't think he'd be able to get to the clog, not without an exterior clean out valve ("And there's no way I'm going into that tiny crawl space to get to the clean out under the house"). But he tried for a while and, miracle of miracles, he knocked the blockage loose. We shelled out about $300 for his services on the night after Christmas, but at that point, $300 seemed a meager amount to pay for a functional sewer.
A few days later, I went camping with the Scouts for two day, and then a few days after that, school started again. It wasn't a particularly relaxing Christmas break, but it was a memorable one.
Just for fun, I've pasted below a little video Sonora and I made over the break. It's very silly and intentionally campy. So we did have some time to just mess around.
At the beginning of the break, one of our cars broke down. It still isn't fixed. The mechanics think that the computer is bad, but they can't be sure. No junk yard in the whole nation (as far as they can tell) has a used computer for this car. A new computer costs about $500. 2009 turned out to be a very expensive year for us (several car repairs, broken collar bone, tonsillectomy, dental work, new roof on the garage, my trip to Europe, many visits to the doctor by everyone in the family, etc.), and $500 is more than we have extra. So, we are trying to decide what to do about that. We could get a small loan and buy a used car. We're going to need to buy a car any way before the baby arrives in July, a car that will fit three car seats (our old Nissan Sentra only has room for two), so we may just bite the bullet and buy another car earlier than we had hoped. The only problems with this plan are that we had hoped to sell the Sentra and keep the car that broke down. It is much more versatile and useful than the Sentra. And we really don't like the idea of a loan. For now, I'm riding my bike to and from work while the weather is mild. It's about 17 miles round trip, and most of the way I have a wide shoulder or a paved path to ride on.
We also had a pipe break. In mid December, the temperature dropped to around zero for several nights in a row. Then it warmed up above freezing for several days in a row. One morning, we lost most of our water pressure, and, after some investigation, found that a little river of water was running up from between several cracks in the flagstone patio in front of our house. I shut off the water at the street, pried up some rocks, and started digging. I won't go into details, because it really would be boring to read, but I spent about ten hours digging in heavy, sticky mud. It took me a while to find the pipe, which meant I tore up much more of the patio than I needed to. After I found it, I repaired the pipe, only to throw a shovel full of dirt (and a rock) on it, only to have the hidden rock snap the pipe in two again. When everything was finally repaired, I filled the hole back in with mud and tried my best to reassemble the stones and mortar. But there will be a large, uneven area in front of our front door until the summer heat dries out the ground and I can re-set the stones.
Not too long after that, we raced up to spend a day in Spokane with Elizabeth's sister and her family. Their house, in stark contrast to ours, is large and uncluttered. The kids sort of disappear into various rooms, and the adults can talk, which is quite refreshing. And it is always fun hanging out with Vanessa, Corey, and their kids. We had a gift exchange which I always both look forward to and dread. I look forward to it because they always give us a whole bunch of great gifts. I dread it because Elizabeth and I have to think for a long time to come up with a gift for them that they might like, and we usually end up giving them one or two gifts that, in comparison to what they give us, seem so underwhelming.
Our stay with them was short because that night, my oldest sister and her two teenage twin boys, along with my oldest brother, two of his teenage kids, and my dad, came to spend Christmas with us. Everyone except my dad drove up from Phoenix. They picked up my dad in Burley, Idaho. They stayed for a few days, and it was really fun having them here. We went sledding, walking, snipe hunting, and driving around looking at Christmas lights. The teenagers drove the little lawn tractor all over the yard and the neighborhood pulling each other in the little trailer. They also fired up the chainsaw and cut up some old limbs that we used to build a fire with. Sonora really enjoyed spending time with her Aunt Kristinia and cousin Sirrina, who became sort of surrogate mothers to her (Elizabeth was sort of missing in action most of the time due to her nearly constant pregnancy nausea). My dad, brother and I spent a lot of time bonding in the kitchen cooking together. And all of us hung out together to talk, watch movies, open gifts, and eat. It was really enjoyable to be with them.
However, the evening before they were to leave to visit my sister in Richland, Washington, our sewer backed up. And I mean backed up. Be glad I didn't take any pictures of the contents of the bathtub. After I churned up the sewage in my vain attempts to plunge loose the obstruction, it looked as if 25 people had hung their backsides over the edge of the tub and relieved themselves of a whole gut full of diarrhea. This made the bath tub and the whole house rather fragrant. We had new rules that night: No one may use the toilet; No one may run any water down any drain; and of course No one may shower (not that anyone would have wanted to). The plants got an extra portion of urine that night. And the next morning, my family members left rather expeditiously. I feel sort of sorry for the toilet of whatever gas station they first stopped at. In my quest to unplug the sewer line, I plunged and plunged, I bought a sewer snake and, after removing the toilet to better access to the pipes, tried unsuccessfully to make it reach the clog, I wormed around on my belly under the house and covered myself in dust and insulation trying to knock the clean out valve loose (though I'm sort of glad it didn't budge because I wouldn't have been able to move out of the way of the sewage that would have gushed out all over my arms, face, and body). Finally, I called Roto Rooter. The guy didn't think he'd be able to get to the clog, not without an exterior clean out valve ("And there's no way I'm going into that tiny crawl space to get to the clean out under the house"). But he tried for a while and, miracle of miracles, he knocked the blockage loose. We shelled out about $300 for his services on the night after Christmas, but at that point, $300 seemed a meager amount to pay for a functional sewer.
A few days later, I went camping with the Scouts for two day, and then a few days after that, school started again. It wasn't a particularly relaxing Christmas break, but it was a memorable one.
Just for fun, I've pasted below a little video Sonora and I made over the break. It's very silly and intentionally campy. So we did have some time to just mess around.
