William accidentally broke my favorite of my two West Elm owl plates, which is the sort of thing that makes me wonder why we even HAVE children. Furthermore, though it WAS accidental and he DID feel bad about it, at the time he broke it he was unloading the dishwasher huffily.
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Speaking of breaking, I have a category of Things That Break that makes me feel crazy. Here are three examples from the category I have in mind:
• The “check engine” light comes on in the car, and it turns out the engine is perfectly fine and the check engine light itself is the problem, and it will cost $220 to fix it.
• The button that changes the temperature on the oven won’t press.
• The dishwasher’s handle latch stops latching, so the dishwasher can’t be closed.
It’s not like the dishwasher stopped working: the dishwasher is fine, but because the door won’t latch, the dishwasher won’t run. The oven would still heat perfectly well if I could tell it what temperature I wanted. The check engine light should be notifying me of a PROBLEM WITH THE ENGINE.
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The comments on posts aren’t getting forwarded to me from my Gmail account. Nor are Twitter DMs. It is frustrating. At first I chalked it up to a temporary glitch, but it’s been days now. PR requests for free publicity are still getting through just fine.
Yes, why does it cost so much to repair the light that should warn us that something else in the vehicle might need to be repaired? That makes me crazy! Also, the dishwasher handle issue… I have friends who didn’t use their dishwasher for 2 years because of that exact issue. Only when they were selling the house did they have it repaired. I should note that they were down to one child (a senior in HS) in the house. I’m guessing if all their children were young and still at home that handle would have been repaired sooner.
Just thinking about those broken things is making me twitchy. My driver’s side car window won’t roll down and it costs something ridiculous to fix. So I have to open the door at ATMs and parking garages and every time I do it makes me mad. Not enough to pay $300. Although I suppose I should – it’s probably a safety hazard.
Oh no! The car I drove in college had a non-functioning window and I treated it just like you did until one day I got pulled over. I opened my door so I could talk to the officer and he bellowed at me to remain in my vehicle and went for his gun. I’m still traumatized!
I would fix two of those problems with duct tape, I think. I’d tape the dishwasher closed, and cover up that stupid Check Engine light with it. I have nothing for the temp thing, though, ha! The Check Engine light is the bane of my existence, but it is close to being taken over by the !! sign that has squiggled lines under it? And it means that it’s cold or warm and your tires … notice? But it’s not dangerous? I do not even know and when those lights go on and someone expects you to pay that much money for NOTHING, it makes me wonder why I ever moved somewhere without great public transportation.
ZOMG the dishwasher handle…we have a new (to us) house and the previous owners were an interesting combo of 1) really into HIGH END appliances but 2) really NOT into regular maintenance and cleaning of said fancy-pants appliances. We were without a dishwasher for almost TWO WEEKS in part because we couldn’t just call any old “fix this stupid latch” repairperson…and while I know it is a very first world type of woe, THERE WAS A LOT OF WOE. Because children. And a husband who constantly needs a beverage but will not rinse out a glass and re-use it.
My check engine light has been on for months. The mechanic said everything is fine, turned it off, and it came back on again. I am choosing to ignore it.
About check engine lights, but irrelevant: the car we bought before our more recent one had the check engine light ripped out of it. Consequently, we had no idea it had major problems. Surprise! I was told I had no recourse because this is not illegal in the state of Maryland.
We had the same issue with a latch on the washing machine. Washing machine was FINE for washing clothing, but it wouldn’t do it because the latch was broken. A stupid 50 cent plastic part cost time off work and a repair man visit. The most galling thing is that the repairman told me that the piece breaks ALL THE TIME. Company is aware of it and can’t be bothered to replace it with something less fragile than a slim plastic latch.
Is it a maytag dishwasher? If so, My MIl had the same issue and while it didn’t cost much to fix it was annoying and broke 3 times while she had said dishwasher.
Whatever mechanism/magic that keeps the hatch door on my crossover from decapitating me/breaking limbs off my children has broken. It is really hard to load groceries, etc. with one arm. I’m also missing the convenience of the kids just climbing out the back v. moving booster seats and pushing the middle seat forward. It’s not even something I ever imagined could go wrong with a car.
We have a similar situation with our old Honda hatchback. My husband keeps a baseball bat in the back, for propping up the hatch.
We never replaced our dishwasher when it broke, even though it would have been relatively cheap to do so. Our three children had rotating dish duty.
The “check engine light” is a pita. Good thing my husband is (was) a mechanic, and has mechanic friends who are willing to share various (how to turn this “idiot light” off) tricks. :)
Latches! Apparently the bane of my existence. The latch on my dryer broke – the dryer that my husband had before we got married TWENTY-TWO YEARS ago – so there was no repair option. Instead, since the dryer works fine, he took at window latch, mounted it and viola! The dryer is back in business. For now.
As for the dishwasher – we just went through something similar. IF you can nail down the model number close enough – it IS possible to order the part (we ordered from Sears) and replace it yourself. It’s a PITA, but worth it in terms of not paying someone to come out and do it (just Google it). But, it is a two person job. Particularly if ONE of those persons (looking at Hubby) is known for breaking plastic bits every time he comes across one.
My airbag light is on (worryworryworry) and the back seat belt quit retracting, so I just took out that seat so no kids would sit there. Meanwhile I forgot about it and picked up my neighbor’s kids to go to the pool, and they had to double-buckle because there weren’t enough seats, which is NOT safer AT ALL. So basically my car is trying to kill everyone.
I thought my hubs was crazy for buying this $120, or something outrageous like that (I blocked it out at the time, i was so mad) priced thingy and book to check the “check engine” light, but now that we have 4 kids in college and own 6 cars….I understand
I’m sorry it’s annoying and pricey, but the idea of the “something is broken” light breaking tickles me.
Swistle, are you in my brain? I have been fuming over check engine lights the past few days and lo and behold! We were in the market for a used car and took on the horrific (I think) act of car shopping on a Saturday afternoon. While test driving a car, we noticed the “check engine” light had not turned off. When we told them we were interested BUT the check engine light was a concern they said “Well, if you want us to fix it you’ll have to pay X amount more for the car”…needless to say we did not buy it. Who uses the check engine light as a bargaining chip???