Day one was Monday.  We had an off site training with lunch provided.  It was a bit unusual as the lunch was a baked potato bar with soup.  The soup was excellent and the potato was pretty good. 

On day two the company had outside contractors doing some training.  The company provided pizza to the group but overordered so I was able to acquire three slices.

On day three I participated in the training so was provided Subway subs. 

Day four I was able to acquire tacos from the training feast.  Pretty good week for for food.

I’ve failed to mention that the gas powered clothes dryer has been giving me fits.  It is old…probably close to 25 years.  And frequently the blasted thing won’t light which sends the machine into a non stop, never ending cycle of tumbling.  Since it is not lit there is no heat so the clothes don’t get dry.  Not a very efficient use of the dryer.

My brother-in-law took a look at it and told me that the switch that controlled the lighting mechanism probably had bad connections.  Removing and reinserting the connectors initially fixed the issue.  But the dryer ended up back in its old routine.  So I unplugged the dryer and went through the process of removing and reinserting the connectors.  Once again the machine would work. 

It would stay working for about a week before going back to not lighting.  So over the last two months I’ve been “fixing” the dryer about once a week.  All was going ok until the other day when I could not get the dryer to light even after repeated attempts of messing with the connectors.  In my final and possible almost fatal attempt I did not reinsert the connector as well as it should have been.  As I was watching and hoping that the dryer would light the connector came loose [probably due to the non-stop tumbling] and fell to the bottom of the dryer.  A series of sparks nearly burned my retinas due to the intensity of the light. 

I quickly unplugged the dryer and took a look at the connector.  Or I should say took a look at what remained of the connector.  It was burned to a crisp.  Luckily I was not touching the dryer when this happened or I would have been zapped.  So now I am looking for a new dryer.  I guess I get to help the economy again.

Today I noticed the middle downspout on the back of the house had come loose and was hanging on by a figurative thread.  Since the temperature had reached a warm 50 degrees today I figured it was a as good a day as I was going to get to fix it. 

Since there is still about a foot of snow on the ground I put on my snow boots and jacket and headed outside.  I grabbed the ladder from the garage and carried it to the back of the house.  I stood it up against the downspout to hold it in place next to the fence that it had previously been attached.  I returned to the garage for a bungee cord not sure of my next step.  With the bungee cord I secured the downspout to the end of the deck.  Now I could set the ladder up correctly so I could work on a more secure temporary solution. 

Back in the garage I found a couple of pot light hangers left over from a basement remodel project.  I figured I could nail them to the end of the deck and bend them around the downspout for a interim fix. 

To my delight it worked like a charm!