And ask for specific directions (with video if possible) about something called a ’delicate cycle’ that SWMBO keeps mentioning that I’m supposed to use when I wash her ’unmentionables’ and other ’delicate’ stuff. Two guys have already answered with “Doesn’t exist” and “Urban Myth’ respectively. SWMBO swears it exists and has even tried to show it to me but I keep going blank when the dial on the washer is turned in any direction not equaling ’Left’. Turn dial left to 18, pile clothes in, pour soap over top (of clothes not the washer), pull knob (which we men know something about) and it washes. Come back in 3 hours and it’s done. Easy! I think she tried turning the knob to the right. I think. Or maybe it was too far to the left. I don’t know.

Then I e-mailed the Whirlpool technical support asking for directions (with video if possible) for that very same ’delicate cycle’ that’s supposed to be on the DRYER also. If not for knowing and trusting SWMBO these past 22 years or so I’d think she was lying to me. I mean, the same setting on the washer AND the Dryer!? Come on! How stoopid do you think I am?!? You pull the clothes out of the washer, pile them into the dryer, clean the lint thingie, toss in that sheet thingie, close the door, turn the knob to the left to the 2 hour mark, push the ’start’ button then go out and steam clean your engine with the dryer exhaust. Come back next day and they’re dry. What’s so hard about that? Works for me!

Haven’t heard back from Whirlpool Tech Support yet. I figure they’re still researching the supposed delicate cycle that’s supposedly built into their washers.Maybe I ought to check for this at snopes.com and report it if they haven’t heard of this yet. I’ll let y’all know.

Right now though I’m going to investigate this “The clothes won’t wrinkle as much if you fold them while they’re hot’ rumor she’s trying to pass off to me….

I am caught between the horns of a dilemma. Talking to the finance lady at the bank yesterday; they were more interested in the amount of money we have going out each month than what we actually owed. Especially the $400/mo and SWMBO sends out for my truck (well above the minimum payment BTW). I can understand that. So SWMBO and I were talking and selling my Digger came up (by me actually). Here’s the dilemma: I can sell the Digger for about $14k and we can become literally bill free. BUT I have a butt-ton of work I still need to do up at the property that I can do with the Digger. If I sold it we’d probably get financing fairly easily. But then we’d have to either rent a digger or rent someone with one to get some of the jobs done that need to be done prior to construction beginning on the dome. What do I need the Digger for? Trenches for the power, water & septic when we get those put in. Widening the dome hole. Final grading of the dome hole prior to building. Digging the footers. Pushing dirt into that hole at the top of the dome hole and pushing dirt back around the dome after it’s completed. Moving several downed trees. Road repair and maintenance. And probably a few more things I can’t think of at the moment. But if I sell the Digger we can pay off the truck, visa overdraft and (something else SWMBO mentioned) and probably qualify for a larger loan.

Not to mention that I was seriously thinking of starting my own business of doing light trenching and land clearing after the dome was built and we were moved in.

What Do I Do?

Finally (actually) snowed here about 2315 last night. Was really coming down mixed rain/snow but then turned to just snow for awhile. Had stopped by the time I went to bed. Hailed a bit today. Light looks funny out there right now (1900). Almost like it does in Ohio just before a tornado comes through.

Finally hooked up the speakers in this new monitor. They aren’t the greatest but they’ll do. Looking for a splitter so I can still run my subwoofer though. Did clear up a lot of space to put the subwoofer under the monitor and the two speakers in the back room. Found out my vcr has component video out (you know, that 3 pronged thingie) but not in (and S-video out only) so I can’t hook the HDMI/DVI(?) output from the video card in the Media Center in to the vcr. (We have one of those DVD/VCR recorder combo’s but it’s still called a VCR.) My TV’s about 11 years old (Thank You Sears Scratch-and -Dent) and has cable or composite/stereo inputs. The cable box has a few composite/stereo outputs also.

Brrr. Time to get a fire started.

Started to make a comment on how Weather Persons on TV are the only people I know that can be wrong a majority of the time, blame an unseeable force (atmosphere) and still get paid a decent salary for it, when my computer rebooted and I lost my hard drive for awhile. Seems my ’dock’ may be going bad cause the drive works when I plug it in by itself. Hmmmm.

Commercial says: A lawyer will fight to get you money. Well, Duh! But don’t be fooled, folks. He ain’t fighting to get YOU money. I believe Shakespeare had it right…

SWMBO took me out for breakfast at the FHP in Port Orchard. Was good! Then we went and walked the mall in Silverdale until it was time for our appointment with the lady at the bank. Waste of time. They can only help us with $240-280k and we need at least $350k. Damn. Back to the figuring board.

Oh, speaking of weather persons; it finally did start snowing here in Olalla. When SWMBO and I took off for breakfast it was raining here in the valley, but 50 up (in elevation) it was snowing pretty good. Then rain in the next valley, snow atop the next hill, and rain on the freeway. It didn’t really start snowing in Port Orchard until we were about half way through breakfast. Cool! Seems like this will be one of those colder summers…

Mark the Contractor stopped by to give us his numbers. Not counting the dome, well, electric (PUD3) and a couple of other things he wants $155k. Which for what he will do doesn’t seem to bad. So the ball park figure for our dome stands at $360k. Still Phew! but not as Phew! as $450k.

Bought a 22’ widescreen monitor from friend Bob across the street last night. It’s nice but until I got the resolution set right everything was WIDESCREEN. Ugh! But ramping up the resolution seems to have brought everything back to the correct aspect ratio. Monitors pretty good for watching movies at my desk but not that great just for computing. Nice to have room to do something on one side and fly somewhere in FltSim 2002 on the other though…

Is going on. Weather’s too cold and wet to get out to the property and get any work done; even though I did get by there today to see how my drainage was holding up. Not too bad, actually. WeatherPersons keep saying lots of rain with a possibility of snow the next few days. Sure.

Yesterday I got off my lazy old man’s ass and cleaned the woodstove. That was exciting! Took all of an hour. Started some laundry. (But didn’t finish it.) Re-converting season 1 & 2 of Smallville to 720p format. Still not following my calendar.

Had a visitor while taking some video of clouds the other day…