Sen-sible thoughts: June 2010

Home repairman

For a couple of years, Tish has been complaining that the washing machine was acting up. Supposedly, it would wash just fine, but then miss the spin cycle, leaving the clothes sopping wet. For the sake of people Googling out there, let me put in some keywords here. We have a Kenmore 90 series washer, 110.23932200. At first I thought it was a faulty lid switch. Since the washing cycle works fine, the motor shouldn't be the problem. Then Tish showed me what the problem was. After the wash cycle is over, you can hear the motor run, but the drum is not spinning. Then, if you hold the lid switch down, and give the drum a couple of good turns, something will "catch" and the drum starts spinning. To make a long story short, it was a bad clutch. For those who drive stick shifts, you know if you don't let go of the clutch completely, the car never moves. Same thing here. A $40 replacement part, and I saved $200 in not calling a repairman in.

Panel off, motor disconnected, transmission assembly out

That's the motor in the lower right corner

The agitator shaft hooked to the transmission assembly

The very top circular part is the clutch. It was full of gunk (this picture is after I cleaned it) from worn pads.

Replace clutch, put everything back together, and we have a happy washing machine!

Priya's first White Sox Game

Priya had been asking for quite a while to go to a White Sox game. So through the generosity of some friends we went to a game for free on Father/Daughter day. The seats were great - along the third base line, right over the home team dugout. The game was an afternoon game, so after a little while, it got pretty hot, so we just wandered around the stadium, spending some time in the kids section.

Ending out the school year

Priya finished her two years of pre-school at Angel Academy a few weeks ago. The experience was invaluable for her in terms of social development, and getting a good start in reading and writing. For kindergarten, we have decided that she will be going to Highland Christian School. The other choice was Lansing Christian. The latter is three minutes from where we live, while Highland is a good 10-12 minutes. But for both Tish and I, our spirits responded very differently when we took a tour of both schools. Lansing is still very old-fashioned in its approach to education. Highland is a lot more progressive, and the general feel of the place is also more joyous. So at least for the first year, we will try out Highland and see how it goes.