Good morning! Sevmom, I told mcson that one of my “grown up cyber friends” had the same thing happen so to stop blaming himself 
He feels bad that he’d tried to go that block after the brake lockup until he pulled over and called the tow truck. I don’t know that I’d have done any differently. The mechanic’s shop was two blocks away. The time belt had less than 10,000 miles on it as he’d had it and the water pump replaced in the summer. Its hard to know cause and effect in these things.
Unintended consequences seems to be the theme around here this week to a comedy of errors level. I had the half-baked notion to update mch’s vintage diningroom set (a large Tobias scarpa glass table with square chrome sling chairs) via guerrilla-DIY shenanigans after getting two obscene pro quotes ($1350 and $2200 respectively.)
So all I wanted was to change the slings, and how hard could it be, right? Lol. So I bought several yards of contract (eg healthcare upholstery grade) vinyl, unbolted all the pieces of the chairs to remove the old slings, and cooked up a plan with my formerly favorite local seamstress. She did a test set that worked great. So imagine my surprise when I picked up all six last weekend and the top sling was an inch oversized…not usable because the 2.25" chrome tube ends at the top well before the back sling. (Her underling had misundstood the instructions.)
She was only willing to correct them, which due to the material that’s doubled front and back, i felt would weaken the seam (perforation). So I bought another bolt of the vinyl and somewhat unhappily paid to have them redone rather than risk the load-bearing integrity of the first incorrect set.
What could go wrong, right? I wrote down the measurements again, showed the underling what was wrong, gave him both backslings…the original and the one that was an inch too tall, showed him 7 pctures of th chair and explained how they reassembled, etc. so he’d know what he was making and why it had to be right.
So last night, mch picks them up while I’m running errands because we have company coming in this weekend and need the chairs in order…and the little idiot got the height right but now the loop section where they slide onto the chrome posts is a quarter inch too small for the 2.25" posts.
Seriously.
First world problem born of my own mucking about and frugality, I know, but really?
After a very unfruitful phone call to the proprietor, who insists they are correct (I have evidence contrary because unlike her employee I can read a freakin tape measure) McH and I used soap and a huge screwdriver to stretch-slide the vinyl onto the posts and call it done for the moment
I don’t have the energy for these small battles this week.
Then I go out to the pool house for something and discover that my 95 degree physiotherapy done covered pool has dropped to 84 degrees. I hadn’t used it that morning because it was my now 4 am morning for a standing 6:45 am weekly meeting, but my automation system was supposed to have heated it back up to 95 overnight. Couldn’t recreate whatever error cased it not to have turned on, so I turned it back on and left it to run up overnight.
By this point, I needed to relax so I asked Alexa to play me some new age meditation music, but she decided to go on strike and I spent the ensuing part of my evening reconfiguring the idiot device.
At this point, I’m fully aware of the irony of my relationship to technology and the brave new world level oppression I’ve come to love…
It seems I can be easily unhinged by an EMP or inference engine
I’m almost afraid to check the hot tub…
Then off to S’s for some food. Spent a bit of time there than home and D, DIL and I went out for foot reflexology where I found out . Wait for it… DIL is pregnant again.