Breaking Point

Poor Dave is almost at his breaking point; it seems like everything around here is breaking.

1. Mower--handle broke at the end of last mowing season; my brother welded the break at Christmas; the week before July 4, the handle broke again just above the weld. So, Dave got a new self-propelled mower.

2. Blower--our blower was bought at the same time as the original mower, seven years ago. Dave's been having trouble getting it to start for a while now. Today it wouldn't start, so we went to Lowe's and bought a new Husqvarna blower.

3. Ceiling fan--last summer, Dave installed a new ceiling fan in our bedroom. It has a remote control. The remote quite working. Dave had to take it down and get a new one. Our bed suffered a wound in the initial and secondary installations. For the past two months the remote has been spotty in working. Last night, Dave "dropped" the remote when fighting to get the light off. Today, we bought a new Hunter, remote-control-less fan.

4. Side garage door latch. Randomly isn't working. Dave finally got the door closed last Sunday; we haven't opened it since. He's decided to put a new keyless lock on the door to remedy the problem.

5. Drop Light. Dave has been plastering and sanding the walls in the two bathrooms upstairs to get them ready for texturing. Today he decided he would finish everything up in an effort to get Jorge out here next Friday or Saturday to texture them. Since the light fixtures are down, Dave is using a drop light. He finished one room, moved to another, then the light didn't work. We bought a new one at Lowe's. I laughed and said that the original would be working when we got home. Sure enough, it was.

6. Freezer. A few months ago, we went out into the garage and found water coming from our upright freezer. Opening it, we discovered it wasn't working. Thankfully most items were still mostly frozen, so we put them in the freezer inside. Since it was a $99 purchase at Home Depot on clearance at least 4 years ago, we figure it will cost more to repair it than to replace it.

I'm sure there are other things that are just waiting to break. Hopefully, the purchase of a new ceiling fan, drop light, and blower will keep us limping along for a while. I think Dave might just break if something else does.