<p>Oh why do things tend to break at the most inconvenient times? One of the pendants in the light fixture above our kitchen table burned out last night. DH took it apart, poked around with a multimeter and announced, “Time of death - 1:32 pm.” I’m hosting a Thanksgiving dinner, and we can’t have a bunch of wires sticking out of the ceiling! Of course, the model is already outdated, and there are no replacement parts available, which means I have to get a new light fixture… What an aggravation! Rant off, I’m going shopping…</p>
<p>This reminds me of last December, when we were rushing to have dinner before going to my daughter’s senior year performance of the Nutcracker.</p>
<p>This was moment when the microwave decided to go up in a cloud of smoke…</p>
<p>On a good note, it sounds as if you husband knows his way around electricity. The only thing my H could do with a multimeter would be to pronounce the word! Perhaps you could tell the guests it burnt out that very morning…</p>
<p>Good luck on the shopping and the replacement!</p>
<p>Twice I’ve clogged our disposal with potato peels before a big dinner. I am no longer allowed to put ANY potato peels down the disposal.</p>
<p>My dishwasher. Today. 96 hours till Thanksgiving.</p>
<p>I too was impressed that he knew what a multimeter was. Of course, my DH has several of them. He would likely go get a new light fixture but chances of it being installed by Tgiving would be probably nil.
I’m almost afraid to post here because I might jinx something in my house!</p>
<p>Yes, be careful – things seem to break in 3’s. (Well, at least for me!)</p>
<p>Well…maybe this is the wrong thing to say…but I WISH my light over my dining room table would DIE. Then I would be able to replace it. As long as it’s still working, it will be THE fixture in that room. I hate it.</p>
<p>BB…let us know what you got to replace the old light. I’ll bet it’s really nice!!</p>
<p>Put a cake in the oven, expecting 18 people for dinner. Check on the cake. Nothing happening. Dead oven. Guests arriving in 3 hours. Everything heated up on stove top. Not my finest culinary offering. 
BunsenBurner, sorry about your unilluminating experience.</p>
<p>My dryer’s been officially dead for a week now. Parts being shipped, should be here tomorrow and hopefully repair on Tuesday - blackeyedsusan, the “trouble in 3’s” did cross my mind…</p>
<p>Sure would be nice to send my S back to school with CLEAN clothes after Thanksgiving…It’s been around 5 degrees so the thought of hanging stuff out to dry is not too appealing.</p>
<p>ugghhhh…my dishwasher died before Thanksgivng a few years back, and my husband tore the kitchen apart to put in the replacement…It was a mess and had me in tears when the reality was, it would have been better to wait the extra few days to install, rather than have the mess in the place dinner was to be served…worse things with appliances were yet to be experienced …sadly , our technology has DECLINED in recent yrs, not improved</p>
<p>Our house will be 12 years old next spring. I know from prior experience that the clock is ticking and major appliance meltdown is imminent. We are betting it will be the AC and it will be the hottest day next summer.</p>
<p>I sympathize.</p>
<p>I can tell you right now. There will be a dreadful leak in my retail shop on Thanksgiving morning. The staff member who goes in to care for the perishable merchandise will find it. And call me. Of course, you are correct, this is a LANDLORD problem. Of course, the Property Manager will not answer his cell phone on Thanksgiving weekend (not just the day of) and I will be stuck calling the plumber and waiting for the plumber. </p>
<p>The last leak was on the Sunday of Labor Day Weekend.</p>
<p>The joys of owning your own business. Argh!</p>
<p>Our house is 15 years old…all of the appliances in it were bought at the same time…I just pray they can hang on until after March 5…last tuition payment.</p>
<p>Then there was the Passover with 18 guests when both of my ovens died. </p>
<p>And the Christmas (yeah, we celebrate any and all religious holidays) when we had no electricity, and I wound up cooking Christmas dinner at a friend’s house two miles away . . . </p>
<p>The gods (Christian, Jewish, whatever) were laughing.</p>
<p>Hmmmm. Maybe if I stuck to one religion, they’d be gentler on me . . . .</p>
<p>Sometimes it’s not the appliances. We put the turkey in the oven one T’giving morning (with a house FULL of guests who were all waiting to shower and such)…and the POWER WENT OUT. Lovely.</p>
<p>My dishwasher last week–just when you want to be spending big bucks on an appliance. The repairman, who said it would cost close to $400 to fix it(which I’m pretty sure was the purchase price).</p>
<p>And of course, that’s the deal with anything and everything now–either they don’t make replacement parts, or it costs as much as buying a new one to fix it. It’s really getting ridiculous. I bought a mop last year at Target, and I’ve replaced the mop head a couple of times but when I went to buy a new one–sorry, it’s a new mop design now. It’s the exact same mop, but with a different way to attach the head, so you can’t use the replacement heads with the old mop. So surprise! I have to buy a new mop!</p>
<p>We had a Thanksgiving weekend with heavy snow and no power for 5 days and all the kids home for Tgiving plus a friend visiting.</p>
<p>Luckily it was a horrid cold snap, all frozen food went on the deck, refrigerated food in the garage and all cooking on the BBQ which also had one burner. We even did eggs benedict.</p>
<p>Boiler went on Xmas eve - had to delay trip to inlaws out of state while waiting for the repairman. Well pump died on the Friday before Labor Day weekend - fortunately, the repairman lives in our (small) town and had a spare pump in his garage, which he installed that Saturday morning</p>
<p>Our house is 20 years old. Over the last couple of years hot water heaters, dishwashers, refrigerators, washers and dryers have made their way to the curb one at a time. All of our major appliances, save our refrigerator, are twenty years old. We’re taking bets on which one of the above mentioned or maybe the roof or heat pump will go first…</p>