I showed up at the house around 1:25 and they had already replaced the blown capacitor and serviced both units. How is that for an awesome experience? It is great to have a reliable service company for such a required resource in these Texas summers.

Thanks Abdiel and Gino! http://www.bigbearac.com/

A trip to the Home Depot yielded a new air gap. Returning home, I installed the new $5 part and anxiously ran a test cycle. I placed a paper towel near the air gap to see if it soaked anything up and left the stuff from under the sink out to make sure no water leaked underneath. Anxiously waiting while I ran the dishwasher cycle, I kept checking back to see the progress. It is now in dry mode and everything is clear of water! SUCCESS. I’m glad that the new air gap was able to cure my problem as well as not having to call a plumber. Now that has our leaky dishwasher fixed!

While mowing, I noticed a giant hole on the side of the garage right up against the foundation.  Sure enough, some varmint dug it as there was dirt everywhere.  Coincidentally, Molly came running back inside one morning from her walk to the bus stop to inform me she saw an armadillo run into our bushes.  I believe that was the culprit.  I took the hose out and filled the hole with water, but no armadillo.  Satisfied that nothing was in there at the moment, I put two bricks in the hole and covered it back up with the dirt scattered about.

When I had our wax myrtles removed a significant empty spot was left in the elaeagnus hedge along the front of the garage.  I purchased a three gallon plant from Shades of Green and planted it this weekend.  After that I watered all the flowers including the crape myrtle I planted several weeks ago.

Then I set out to mow the back yard.  However, the last rain storm that came through two weeks ago took out one of our cedar trees.  It broke off the trunk about three feet off the ground.  Upon further investigation, there was twine tied around the trunk.  I surmise it was for holding the branches in during transport/planting and that the lazy incompetent landscapers that installed the tree for the original owners of our house neglected to cut the twine loose.  After five years of growth, the trunk expanded and the twine choked off the trunk causing a weak spot where it snapped.  For now I’ve got a silly looking half tree in the back yard but I can deal with it until I can have someone come take the rest out and grind the stump.

I thought for a while our downstairs A/C was going south as I could hear air flowing through the vents all weekend.  This was not something I needed.  After checking the thermostat to make sure it was cooling to the correct temperature for the twentieth time, I realized that the fan was set to ‘On’ instead of automatic and that the outside unit was not running, but the ventilation fan was.  That was a relief.

Edit: Appears we’re not out of the water yet. Two full fill-ups of freon and some welding haven’t fixed the issue.

Edit 2:They’ve finally fixed it. Also – they are giving us a refund on a portion of the expense.

This weekend, we had Dan, Juhree and their new son Jason over. Good times.