Oh no!!!.....Hurray!

First the "Oh No!!!"

I was feeling good that I had finally started the last load of laundry when I noticed that the water was still running after it had started agitating. I thought that was odd, but I was on the phone with Kyle so I didn't give it a lot of thought. After the phone call, I started to go outside, past the washer, when I stepped in a puddle. I quickly turned off the washer...the water kept flowing. I reached behind the washer to turn those handles in the wall that are there for this purpose...they would not budge...the water kept flowing. I grabbed the phone and pushed redial...Kyle told me to turn off the water at the street. I ran out to the street...couldn't turn that knob either...ran and grabbed a wrench...finally the water stopped flowing. Then I got the wet/dry vac (now I'm really glad Kyle decided to buy that last year) and started sucking up the water that covered half the kitchen floor. I just hoped the water hadn't gotten under the new laminate wood floor in the kitchen. Once I got the water cleaned up, I was left with a washer filled to overflowing with clothes and dirty water, and no water running to the house. I didn't dare turn the water back on until I could turn off the water to the washer, and those knobs still wouldn't budge. The neighbor wasn't home, so I decided to wait for Kyle to come home.

Now the "Hurray!"

We decided to cut our losses on the 9 1/2 year old washer. After all, Kyle has been saying for 6 months that the motor sounded like it was going out, and this thing with the water not stopping was something new. So, after spending a good part of Saturday reading up on washers, we made our purchase, and it was delivered last Tuesday. (If the washer had to die, it was nice of it to do it right before President's Day weekend so there were lots of sales.) We chose a front-loading LG washer, and I am very pleased with it. Of course, I was hoping for such a large capacity that I could do fewer loads, but I learned that all washers have their limits if you want the clothes to actually get clean. I am amazed at how quiet it is...all I really hear is the water running! And it should save tons of water and energy. So, "Hurray!"

Now, after buying a new car and a new washer, we hope that our family has done enough to help the economy. We don't want spend any more to stimulate the economy for the next few months.

I love this photo

"Give me 5$ and I'll tell you a secret!"

Wha-hooo!

It's official, I have a new car! After much angst and thought, searching and debate, we found me an "almost new" Ford Fusion (2008 with 4500 miles and a previous owner who only drove it for 7 months.). Even so, the negotiations were long and hard but she's all ours.

Papa would be proud. I'm a Ford man once again!

Now I need to come up with a name for her....any thoughts?

Check out my new blog...

I'm starting another blog for a different audience here. I will post rants and raves, tips, tricks and other thoughts about Oracle's BI tools (formerly Hyperion) and other general topics.

Electric cars and lithium ion batteries...are they the answer?

I read an interesting article which indicates that maybe the path we're on to make our cars electric isn't such a great idea after all.

Per the article, over half of the world's lithium ore (used to manufacture the batteries used in most electric cars) is found in the tiny South American country of Bolivia. A country which happens to be un-apologetically anti-American and anti-West. Its current President nationalized the country's oil and natural gas production and has sparred with US litium interests.

It seems like we're likely to have an uphill battle with electric cars as well.

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If anyone finds any articles on this topic, I'd appreciate other viewpoints on the lithium debate.

---Kyle