Today, I re-discovered that home ownership isn't all it's cracked up to be. I need to replace the front door and all the trim (from termite damage) and the first estimate was $1100!! That's about double what I expected. I didn't realize this, but apparently if you replace the jamb, you need to replace the entire door - door as well - even if the door itself is in fine shape. Seems absurd to me and I have three other handymen coming over to provide estimates (and confirm the truth in that). I think I can get a better price but not that much better. And the reason for this was termites and getting that resolved was another $1200 for the first year and $350/year every year after for maintenance - STILL MORE EXPENSES.
Then I get a call from the auto repair shop where my 98 Chevy Blazer is because it fails to start consistently. It's diagnosed as needing a new fuel pump and relay. Doesn't sound too bad until he says $1700!! I tell him I'll call back and call a Chevy dealership - they quote $1100 for the same job - another call back. Then I call Meineke and they estimate $650. I've scheduled the job with Meineke for next Tuesday. Can you believe the differences in prices. I mean, the audacity of attempting to charge me $1700 when in two tries I found a place for $650 astounds me. I'm sure they get people to agree to those prices too (I must admit they do excellent work - both diagnostic and repairs - but their pricing is outrageous). Still, that's another big hunk of change.
Then I go to start the trimmer to get the parts of my yard I can't reach with the mower and it won't start. Bad gas, clogged carburator, bad spark plug, who knows what? I'm a systems engineer - not a mechanic. I now have to take that into the shop to be repaired - I'm sure it will be around $50 (more and I may as well buy a new one, and it just won't be less I'm all but certain).
And then a bothersome, busybody neighbor reports us to the county for having an unregistered camper next to the side of the house. We have 2 weeks to deal with it. Got it 10 or so years ago and never even transferred the title to our names and used it only about 5-6 times - the last time about 7-8 years ago. To get it registered would require an inspection (and probably more costly repairs like new tires or whatever), all sorts of fees to get a new title and tags and such, insuring it (I suspect that's required but not certain), and all in 2 weeks. We decided to donate it to the Vietnam Veterans Organization (along with yet another car that died on us 2 months ago and has since been replaced with another used vehicle - another $7000).
Now the hard drive in my laptop is making loud running noises periodically. All tests check out fine, but I suspect it's only a matter of time. I had a 4 year warranty on it and have a year remaining so that may be OK (by then I will probably want a new one as I can't upgrade this one to W7), but I use Vista to do a complete image backup. If I change the drive and it isn't exactly like the one there now, how do I get the restore to work? If I install the driver first, when I do the restore it will overwrite it with the driver for the old hard drive and I won't be able to access the drive because it will then have the wrong driver. If I restore first, then the wrong driver will install and I won't be able to access the hard drive (and perhaps even get a BSOD). How the heck do you update the hard drive driver when restoring a Vista-generated complete image backup so the system functions? Can it be done from a recovery disk Command Prompt - and if so, how? I've looked everywhere and can't find a procedure. Anyway, hopefully this won't turn into yet another expense and perhaps worse if I need to clean install and try to copy data from a complete image backup which isn't as easy as if it were just an ordinary backup (and then go through the hassle of starting from scratch with programs and settings and updates and all the rest).
Anyway, it's been an expensive day (or couple of weeks if you include the replaced car and the termite extermination) and the day is still young here! I sincerely hope nothing else pops up today or for several months (as we need time to recover from this wave that just happened and is still going on).
Sorry for the long post. Those of you who know me, realize by now that this happens from time-to-time - I do tend to do this (even with replies to questions/problems in the forums). I just start typing and before you know it something like this exists. I wonder if you even made it this far. LOL!
:huh:
