The Joys of Condo Ownership,

So, I've promised to blog more about my life. Here's the first of several posts to catch you up on what I've been doing this month.

On the sixth, I got back from Kung Fu Panda (which I loved, BTW) to discover that my thermostat was completely blank. And while it wasn't nearly as hot as it has been this last week (over 110 every day), it was still in the high 90's for the high, which means we needed the AC to be running. So, I started fooling around with it, and discovers it runs on batteries. Yep, I've lived there for almost 5 years, and I just learned my thermostat runs on batteries.

So, I figured, no sweat. I'd just put in new batteries and all would be well. It wasn't that simple. Maybe it was because the batteries were so old that all the life had been sucked out of them, but sticking new batteries in did nothing. So, off and on, I kept playing around with them trying to get it to come back to life. Eventually, parts of the display came back. Finally, enough was there, I could turn the AC on and set the temp for the night. I did that, gave up, and went to bed.

Fortunately, the next morning, the full display was back and brighter than I ever remembered seeing it. I was so happy! And it's been running fine since.

Now, I need to remember to change those batteries regularly.

Last weekend (as in Father's Day weekend), I had an even more "fun" experience.

Paul had taken me flying in one of the helicopters he's been learning to fly in. Then, we went out to dinner. So it was about 10 PM on a Saturday night when we get home to find half an inch of water sitting on the kitchen floor. I start to mop it up, and discover water sitting in the sink. Water that's still warm. And there's all kinds of water on the counter. And food, too.

So, while he goes out for liquid plumber, I decide to ask out upstairs neighbors if they've noticed anything. Turns out, they've been trying to contact me all day since they've got major water leaking into their garage.

So, I call the HOA. After an hour, they finally let me know someone will come out the next morning to take care of the problem. I was rather upset since I figured it would mean I'd have to miss church, but they came early enough I could still go. Cut a hole in the wall and used a snake to clear things out. Everything seems to be working well again. In fact, I talked to my neighbor this morning, and she said things were drying out. They've come once to start patching the wall and will be back tomorrow for the spackle and paint.

Heck, it even got me to give the kitchen a good cleaning, something it desperately needed.