March 4, 2010
Dear Everyone:
A couple of weekends ago, I was up at “Jeannie’s”
place, admiring her new
LED television which was now receiving an
HD
(High Definition) signal because she had gone down to the cable company
and traded her regular
cable box for an HD cable box.
The cable guy that we talked to at the Big, Blue Electronics
Warehouse Store, where we had purchased the LED TVs, told us that the
cost for HD was only $7.00 per month more than regular.
Well!
Not only did “Jeannie” get a gorgeous picture on her new TV, but we
discovered that there were tons of channels available, some HD versions
of channels we already got, but also lots of other channels that we
didn’t get. In fact, when I
got home I tried tuning into some of these channels, and although I
could read the information on the screen, the actual picture did not
come through because I had only a regular cable box (dual tuner with
built-in DVR, notwithstanding.)
So last Saturday, I sat down to watch all the
deferred viewing that had piled up on the DVR cable box in the living
room. When I finished, I had
about 90 minutes before the new
washer and
dryer were due to be
delivered. A computer had
called the night before to tell me that my delivery window was 3:30 pm
to 5:30 pm. I pulled the
cable box apart, put it and the remote and power cord, and a book to
read while in line into a large paper shopping bag and drove down to the
cable company.
Because I had a book to read, there was no line to
wait in. I walked up to the
counter and explained that I wanted to trade the existing box in on an
HD one. The technician
understood completely. She
started to tell me that I could keep the remote, but then said she would
give me a new one since I hadn’t programmed it to the new TV.
When I said, “Yes, I have.”, she gave me a startled look, but
said I could keep the remote.
Then she carried the new, bigger cable box out to the car for me.
On the way home, I stopped at a hardware store to
pick up a tarp. This was to
protect the hallway carpet when the delivery men pulled the old
combination washer-dryer out of the laundry closet.
Old washers sometimes drip rusty water when they get pulled out
of a space they have occupied for years.
Once home, I parked in front of my building and
brought out my trusty hand truck to get the cable box and everything
else out of the car and into the condo.
As I was doing this, a big truck pulled up.
Sure enough, it was the delivery guys.
They were early.
They even took the hand truck inside for me.
Got the old combination washer-dryer out, with no
rust or any other problems.
One guy asked me if I had a
vacuum, because there was a lot of dust on
the closet floor. But it
turned out to be caked on dust and the vacuum had no effect on it.
So then he asked for paper towels and
Windex and proceeded to
scrub the floor clean.
Then they stacked the new dryer on top of the new
washer and prepared to install them in the closet.
That’s when they discovered a problem.
There was only a 220
outlet, for the dryer.
No 110 outlet for the washer.
Of course.
When the original developer designed the laundry closet,
20-something years ago, the only thing that would fit in a closet like
that was a combination washer-dryer.
So they only put in the one electrical outlet that they would
need. Screw the future.
I dug out a couple of three-prong
extension cords
that I had used to power the
holiday lights on my porch fence.
They were long enough to plug in the washer, run the cords across
the hallway to the guest bathroom and plug into the outlet there.
This enabled the installers to confirm that the washer worked
properly. A few signed
papers and they were gone, taking the hated combination washer-dryer
with them.
At this point, I went back to the hardware store
and bought a 50-foot, extra capacity extension cord.
Plugged the washer plug, which was strung up over the dryer, into
the extension. The other end
went around the corner into the vanity area of the master bath and
plugged into an outlet.
So for now, on laundry days, there will be a yellow
cord snaking around the corner.
It’s not perfect, but it will do until I can get an electrician
in to move the washer/dryer out of the closet, install a standard 110
outlet, and move the washer/dryer back into the closet.
This evening, as I was arriving home from work, I
encountered our Association president.
In talking about where the dryers vent out of the building
(apparently the vents are pipes coming up through the roof), I mentioned
the situation. He
immediately put a call through to an electrician that the Association
uses to fix lights in the common areas and do other Association-paid
work. The electrician will
be working in the clubhouse across the street from my place tomorrow.
He can come over sometime and take a look at the situation and
give me an estimate.
The only drawback is:
I’ll be at work tomorrow.
But I have his number and will call him in the morning.
If he wants, I can drop what I’m doing and be at the
condo in
about 10-15 minutes. Or,
since I’ll be home all day next Monday, and he’ll be working at our
community then, we might decide to have him come look at it then.
In any case, it looks like the extension cord will be a temporary
thing at best.
And did I mention I love the new appliances?
They’ve got buttons and drawers and all kinds of bells and
whistles and, most importantly, they both tell me when they are ready to
stop. Life is good.
Love, as always,
Pete
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