Playing Fix-It

The girls at the CNF Bike Parade.

By Allan Olson

As most people know by now, I’m not a Mr. Fix-It person. As a matter of fact, when it comes to repairs I often defer to my wife or call in the assistance of another family member. 

On Saturday night, my oldest woke me up to tell me there was water on the floor by the furnace room. I checked the situation out and determined that my waste pump wasn’t working. I wasn’t sure what to do. I did some searching online and tried one of the things mentioned. It worked! – and that meant my problem was going to be less expensive to fix than I originally thought.

So on Sunday morning, after the Bike Parade at Norway Beach, I headed in to Clem’s for some friendly home town Hardware Hank help. Thankfully, the owner new exactly what I needed, and soon I had all the parts in my basket, along with some instructions. The next step was on my own – the installation.

Since I took things apart, I figured I might as well try and put them back together. I enlisted the aid of Nikolai, who also doesn’t play Fix It. Together we managed to install and clean the sewage ejector pit and installed the new pump switch. I put things back together, after checking to see that it worked multiple times, I headed to the shower, feeling a sense of accomplishment. 

Fast forward several hours and once again I find water on the floor. I engaged the pump directly again, and it all went out. I don’t know why did not work now after it had worked properly for about seven hours – and believe me I checked. Hopefully, it will either work its kinks out, or the helpful folks at Clem’s will have the answer for me. For the record, Nikolai declared this project the most disgusting thing of his life. For me, by the age of 14 I had cleaned out more than one stinky project – in particular of the barnyard variety – so I just got down to business and did the dirty work.

On Sunday afternoon my wife and I were going to head into town to get some baking supplies, she went to move her vehicle out of the garage and found that the brakes didn’t work. I checked the brake fluid level, and it was empty. We switched vehicles and headed to town. We grabbed the supplies we needed – plus brake fluid – and headed home again. It was probably our quickest trip in recent memory. 

Back at home I filled the brake fluid reservoir and crawled under the vehicle. I told my wife to pump the brakes, and I ended up with brake fluid in my face – nearly in my mouth. Now I guess another of my vehicles will be back to the shop – it’s a never ending battle. Thankfully, this didn’t happen while she was in the Cities earlier in the week, or commuting to or from work the rest of the week.

After a long restless night thinking about my plumbing issues, I felt a nap was in order, so I crawled on my couch for about 90 minutes enjoying a light slumber. The rest of Sunday evening was spent baking cupcakes for my Dad’s birthday party on Tuesday; actually my wife and the kids did the baking, I just did the dishes.

Earlier on Saturday, Alivia and I made a trip south to Menahga to a cabin on Blueberry Lake for a geocaching event. While there we talked about geocaching, of course, but also about life in general. We met a new resident to the area, a lady who recently retired from law enforcement in the southern part of the state and has now moved a few hours north. The conversation moved to a game of Molkky – a yard game with Finnish roots. I had a little beginner’s luck and won the first game we played. I didn’t do as well in the second game, and in the third I finished somewhere in the middle of the pack. It was a lot of fun; hopefully, I can get someone to make a game for me sometime in the future.

Our plans for the Fourth of July included celebrating my Dad’s 70th birthday at the beach at Zippel Bay State Park. We will also get to see Marcus again for the first time in over a week. It sure has been quiet around the house without him, and it will be nice to have our family back together again.

This weekend, I think we will be sticking close to home – to cut back some costs and to recharge our batteries. I’m also optimistic that since we’ve turned the calendar page into July, the weather will straighten out and we can finally head out fishing again. My poor boat has been more like a lawn ornament than anything else recently; it’s time to put it to work again.

Please remember to watch out for the buses that are carrying our most precious cargo. Also, snap a photo or two to preserve a lifetime of memories. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! Feel free to drop me a line at cltimes1@arvig.net or stop by the office for a visit.