The Streak
No, its not that kind of streak. But it is about as attractive as an overweight frat boy running through the mall in the buff. A couple of weeks ago we began a pretty interesting streak of bad luck.
Here's the scorecard so far.
93 Dodge Caravan Transmission- Terminal. Anybody want to buy a minivan with a bad transmission?
96 Toyota Camry-Radiator blew, overheated, and blew the head gasket. Had to be towed twice.$2000 and 3 weeks to repair
Blaze, 14 year old horse we board here- Got a bad cut on right hock. Had vet in. Was making progress. 3 days later colicked. Had vet in, who determined there was nothing that could be done to help her short of a 2 hour trailer ride to Cornell and a very expensive, doubtfully successful surgery. The owner, vet, and I all agreed she should be put down.
Well- Our well is in a pit that is like a shallow well with a roof over it. Because it is below ground level there is a constant trickle of water into it which drains through a pipe into the pasture down the hill from the well. The cows got to stomping around the end of the pipe and ended up burying it with mud. I didn't notice it until our water quality took a nose dive. All of a sudden our water was kind of green and smelled like mold. When I went and looked into the well pit there was 2 feet of water in there, which then flowed right into the drilled well. It took a half day in a snowstorm to get the pipe opened up, the pit drained, and to shock the well with bleach.
Adams Parents Car- Our friend Adam came to visit for the weekend from Manhattan. He borrowed his parents Lexus to get here. It is rear wheel drive and has no snow tires, so it got stuck in the snow in our driveway as he was trying to start for home. Since I didn't have the plow on the truck I opted to clear the snow with the front end loader tractor. As I took my first pass with the tractor, I caught the bucket on a high spot in the driveway, which burst a hydraulic hose. Adams' parents' car was sitting right there with the window open, and virtually every drop of hydraulic oil landed on and in the car.
My Parents Car- We borrowed a car from my parents because the two cars that we own are inoperable. Last night the Mrs called from Tunkhannock. The car wouldn't start. She ended up calling AAA, who sent out the guy who towed our Camry twice. He got the car started, which seems to have an electrical problem. She got it 3/4 of the way home before the battery drained completely, the lights dimmed, and it stalled. Luckily she was able to get it off of the road, since she had no lights and it was snowing pretty hard and visibility wasn't great. Also she had just enough cell phone service that I was able to hear where she was, and that the car was dead. So that car got towed.
So that's where we are at this point. The whole thing is starting to be pretty funny really, and gives us plenty of opportunity to guess what the next major malfunction will be. Since this is largely an automotive manurestorm, coupled with the fact that my wife had to take our 20 year old farm truck to work today, my money is on the truck not making it back home under its own power. The real fortunate part of this streak is that no people have been hurt other than financially.
I'll be sure to let you know what the crisis du jour is once I know what it is. A hose did burst in the pig nite lite last night flooding part of their pen, but that's not really of the scale it needs to be to count.
Here's the scorecard so far.
93 Dodge Caravan Transmission- Terminal. Anybody want to buy a minivan with a bad transmission?
96 Toyota Camry-Radiator blew, overheated, and blew the head gasket. Had to be towed twice.$2000 and 3 weeks to repair
Blaze, 14 year old horse we board here- Got a bad cut on right hock. Had vet in. Was making progress. 3 days later colicked. Had vet in, who determined there was nothing that could be done to help her short of a 2 hour trailer ride to Cornell and a very expensive, doubtfully successful surgery. The owner, vet, and I all agreed she should be put down.
Well- Our well is in a pit that is like a shallow well with a roof over it. Because it is below ground level there is a constant trickle of water into it which drains through a pipe into the pasture down the hill from the well. The cows got to stomping around the end of the pipe and ended up burying it with mud. I didn't notice it until our water quality took a nose dive. All of a sudden our water was kind of green and smelled like mold. When I went and looked into the well pit there was 2 feet of water in there, which then flowed right into the drilled well. It took a half day in a snowstorm to get the pipe opened up, the pit drained, and to shock the well with bleach.
Adams Parents Car- Our friend Adam came to visit for the weekend from Manhattan. He borrowed his parents Lexus to get here. It is rear wheel drive and has no snow tires, so it got stuck in the snow in our driveway as he was trying to start for home. Since I didn't have the plow on the truck I opted to clear the snow with the front end loader tractor. As I took my first pass with the tractor, I caught the bucket on a high spot in the driveway, which burst a hydraulic hose. Adams' parents' car was sitting right there with the window open, and virtually every drop of hydraulic oil landed on and in the car.
My Parents Car- We borrowed a car from my parents because the two cars that we own are inoperable. Last night the Mrs called from Tunkhannock. The car wouldn't start. She ended up calling AAA, who sent out the guy who towed our Camry twice. He got the car started, which seems to have an electrical problem. She got it 3/4 of the way home before the battery drained completely, the lights dimmed, and it stalled. Luckily she was able to get it off of the road, since she had no lights and it was snowing pretty hard and visibility wasn't great. Also she had just enough cell phone service that I was able to hear where she was, and that the car was dead. So that car got towed.
So that's where we are at this point. The whole thing is starting to be pretty funny really, and gives us plenty of opportunity to guess what the next major malfunction will be. Since this is largely an automotive manurestorm, coupled with the fact that my wife had to take our 20 year old farm truck to work today, my money is on the truck not making it back home under its own power. The real fortunate part of this streak is that no people have been hurt other than financially.
I'll be sure to let you know what the crisis du jour is once I know what it is. A hose did burst in the pig nite lite last night flooding part of their pen, but that's not really of the scale it needs to be to count.
posted by Peter comly at 8:58 AM
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