Day 120

Yesterday was the 120th day of “retirement” and this summer was defined by one crisis after another. I wanted to take a moment and break down the summer and take a moment to drill into some of the crisis and what I did to manage the situation. Let’s go through the list:

1. Dock reno interruption – This project was started immediately after my last day of work. The goal was simply to refresh everything on the dock. I made significant progress but the Texas summer had different plans and I eventually had to stop work due to the excessive heat.
2. Daughter’s car failure – I didn’t know this at the time but the Ford Focus I bought to be her first reliable set of wheels happened to fall into the worst reliable cars on the market. These cars and their Fiesta cousins have a critical flaw in the automated clutch system that all but guarantees a transmission failure. Ultimately I had to purchase a used car in the 2022 market…crazy prices.
3. Wife’s brake issue – This crisis began as a recall on our Santa Fe Sport with the caution “do not park inside due to spontaneous combustion”. That’s right, the recall was a problem that affected voltage in a circuit tied with the ABS system that could cause the car to burn. Subsequently right before having the recall serviced, the brakes began to randomly apply to the point of locking the car in place. Obviously that isn’t a safe situation and this car eventually went to the dealer for repairs. Also more to come on that experience.
4. Slab leak under the garage – This project reared its head suddenly and violently. One morning we discovered the garage had been turned into a steam sauna. The garage is insulated so the heat was trapped inside the garage causing the refrigerator to work overtime to keep the contents cold. At first I thought the problem was the hot water heater failure but eventually I realized it was a leak originating outside of the pipes and after some digging, I discovered water coming from under the slab. Time to call the plumbers.

While 3 of the projects are still in motion at this time, I’d say the impact of the issues have been resolved. Looking back at the summer, I can’t say any of the above was enjoyable but I did learn a lot. I hope good times are on the horizon.