Reality

This post began as a "You know you're from (my home town) when..." list that I ran across on Facebook and found amusing. (How I ended up on Facebook when I logged onto the computer originally to upload photos to Walgreens.com I'm not certain.) Either way Tage walked in and asked what I was writing. I explained that I wasn't writing, rather editing the post I had copied and pasted. He asked why I wasn't writing something and my response was that I had nothing to say. Tage, who is never at a loss for a response, quickly reminded me that I had plenty of things to write about: the snow melting, the accident I had with the Malibu this week, the dog chewing through his chain and wandering the neighborhood while we were gone, things in our house breaking... and the list goes on. Literally 30 seconds after making that comment we walked into the living room only to discover that the heat had gone out. I figured I would take the hint and, before the inside temperature drops to uncomfortable levels and I am forced to don mittens, write about the "reality" of our life here in Spokane.

As I mentioned above, the snow is melting. The outside temperature has maintained above freezing (36 degrees) for about 3 days now and water is running everywhere. This is fantastic except for one thing, streets that still had snow on them and haven't been plowed within the last 3 days are now ice skating rinks. The snow melts slightly and refreezes, causing the whole area to become an ice slick. We watched, amused, this morning as a car attempted to drive up our street unsuccessfully. It just slid backward down the hill time after time. We have chains on the Passat so we didn't have any difficulty getting back to the house after a trip to Petco for a new chain and stake for Astro to play in the back yard. Why are we driving the Passat, you ask? Well...

Two weeks ago we discovered the 4-wheel drive in the 4Runner was not working properly. Not a big deal since we had the Malibu with studded tires that drives great in the snow as long as it isn't too deep. We took the 4Runner into a shop to repair the 4WD the week of Christmas. Evidently the shop broke a lug nut in such a way that they will have to use a torch to remove the pieces, which will then cause the bearings to need to be replaced, and they would have to order parts. I can't be sure that I have all of the details accurate, all I know is it's going to be quite some time (with the holidays and all) until we have the 4Runner back. Being without the 4Runner isn't a big deal except for...

At 6am the morning of Christmas Eve I was driving back home after dropping Tage off at the bus stop for work. Just before our exit from the freeway the Malibu hit a patch of black ice and the rear end began to fishtail. Thinking I knew what to do, I removed my foot from the gas, avoided stepping on the brakes, and held the steering wheel steady. To my surprise this did not fix the problem, in fact the fishtailing grew more exaggerated and the back end finally spun around, planting the front left corner of the car into the snow bank on the side of the freeway. After sitting there for a second and turning on my hazard lights I was able to start the car again, straighten myself out, and gingerly work the car back onto the freeway. I could tell I still had both headlights so I figured the crash couldn't have been TOO bad... and then the warning lights began to flash and the message indicated that I had "low coolant." I made it up the hill to the house and into the garage, dared a brief look at the front end and hiked upstairs to get ready for work. I didn't spend a lot of time checking out the damage but from what I could tell, the front fender was barely hanging on and whatever vital organs lay beneath that section of the vehicle were pretty much crushed. Gathering from the warning lights that it may have had something to do with the radiator, I assumed it wasn't going to be an inexpensive fix and filed a claim with our insurance. They are coming to pick up the sad looking, disabled vehicle on Monday and towing it to the repair shop. That leaves us with the Passat...

While the Passat runs great, it isn't well equipped for snow or ice. Even though the main roads in Spokane are clear and free of the elements we need to keep chains on the front tires of the Passat in order to make it up and down our street as well as the connecting street that will take us to the main street. Once on the main streets we become that car with California plates driving with chains unnecessarily and only going 30 mph. Needless to say, we're sticking to the roads less travelled these days. Not to mention leaving the house only when necessary...

We did take the back roads to Petco this morning. Astro chewed through the coating on his 15ft. chain that keeps him in the back yard but gives him enough freedom to run around and be a puppy. His incessant chewing along with the freezing cold weather we've had caused the metal to be weakened and break, so when we pulled into the driveway on Christmas Eve, there was our dog in the front yard playing in the snow with half a chain dragging behind him. Thankfully we've been home enough to play with him the last couple of days but needed to resolve the issue so he could be outside during the day when we're at work this week and not cooped up in his crate in the house. No joke, we got the most heavy duty stake and chain they sold and it had better work. Speaking of things working...

There are joys of home ownership, there really are. I love our house in Spokane and someday, when we have money to update it, it is going to be an amazing place. As it stands, there are unique challenges facing Spokane homeowners that homeowners south of us in the country do not experience. One of these challenges is having the pipes freeze. One day we turned on the kitchen sink only to have it drizzle a pathetic stream of water and then drip. Tage did his research, borrowed the neighbor's space heater, and even used my blow dryer on the pipes to try and get them running again but no luck. We have to leave the sink dripping constantly so that they don't freeze completely and burst, which hampers my effort to live more "green". I am constantly finding ways to use the water dripping... like filling up the water filter we keep in the refrigerator, keeping the dog's water full, even watering the plants (when I think of it.) Add to that our upstairs shower leaks into the downstairs bathroom, one bathroom sink is forever getting backed up, another doesn't have consistent water pressure, and the third sprays water in every direction, one would just as well not use water (which really isn't an option.) It's not that things just don't work though...

It's that they are extremely costly to maintain. Our heat didn't "go out" as much as it "ran out." The homes in Spokane are heated by oil. There is a large tank underground and you have to have a company come and fill your tank upon request. This winter (our first winter in this home) we discovered that we have no idea, nor is there any way to tell without filling it up completely, how many gallons our tank holds. Today marks the second time we have run out of oil. It appears that we are using about 150 gallons per month to heat this wonderful home of ours. I'll let you do the math to calculate just how much that costs to maintain. For those of us on a tight budget as it is, having to factor in that extremely costly necessity during the winter months is not easy. Add to THAT, the fact that one of two providers in the household is going to have to take at least 6 weeks off work in about 2 months, and the stress level tends to be pretty high. I can now understand why they say finances are the biggest source of marital strife in this country, it's the sheer stress of having to figure it all out.

So there you have it. The long and the short of our Spokane reality. That's just the G-rated stuff. Don't get me started on the rest of it...