Hegwein Family Blog

A Nightmare Week...

Well, it had to happen sooner or later. Everything breaking down at once. Let's begin!

1. After vacuuming nearly the entire house on Sunday, Cindy reports that the vacuum cleaner is "acting up." Upon further inspection, it appears the electrical wiring inside the floor attachment is damaged, causing a short circuit. Remedy: None. buy a new one.

2. Cindy comes home after picking up Karl from school, reporting that her car, a 1995 Volvo 940 Turbo, is making a strange "whine" when accelerating. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that the engine had NO OIL, and the noise was coming from the turbo booster straining to turn without benefit of lubrication. Needless to say, I was furious at this lapse in maintenance, and decided to try and fix the problem. I bought 5 quarts of top quality synthetic oil and refilled the crankcase. I thought the better of letting her drive the kids to swim practice, so gave her my car to use. I took the Volvo on a short 1 mile trip to rent a movie; on arrival, smoke began to waft from under the car (!). Upon reaching home, the smoke was thick and filling the cabin, so I leaped out, opened the hood, and was greeted with flames! I ran inside to get the fire extinguisher and put out the engine fire. Apparently, the engine gasket blew, spewing oil all over the place. After a $50 tow to the Volvo dealer, and a $20/day car rental, we await with great trepidation the repair bill.

3. My Company car developed a slow leak in the left front tire, requiring a patch. Unfortunately, I had to return twice to Tire Kingdom for the repair, because the first attempt was a failure.

4. While waiting for my car to be fixed, I began to iron some of my dress shirts. Partway through the 6th one, the ironing board collapsed, the legs snapping off from the board itself. Remedy: a new board was purchased.

We are looking forward to the upcoming Labor Day holiday, as we definitely need to de-stress!