2017-04-16 - Sunday - New cook top

I installed the new cook top on Sunday. I helped my Dad install the old on 18 years ago so I felt reasonably comfortable installing this one. I read the installation instructions twice and dove in.

The first problem I had was when I plopped the new one into the hole.

It didn't fit.

The old one had rounded corners and so did the hole in the counter top. The new on was squared off.

My first thought was that my wife was going to kill me. I had measured side to side and front to back, but never checked the corners. (It's like the refrigerator and the doorway all over again!)

I remembered I purchased a jigsaw for $15 about 10 years ago at a yard sale, so I brought it in from the garage praying there were blades in the box. There were. I cut the corners square and it fell right in --almost.

Now the back edge was sticking up about 3/8 of an inch. It was resting on the junction box we screwed to the wall inside the cabinet.

There was a sheet rock screw holding the box to the wall and of course it was at an angle so I couldn't use my cordless drill. When I unscrewed it, and unscrewed it, and unscrewed it, I found out it was a 2 1/2 inch screw.

I moved the box down a bit and attached it with a 1 1/4 inch screw.

It works and life is good.

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2017-02-20 - Monday - Stuff

On Sunday evening the front burner on our cooktop arced out while I was cooking. After 18 years it finally gave up.

On Monday I checked with GE and found out the replacement element costs $97.00 and the shorted switch costs $85.00. Since we bought the whole cooktop for $165.00 we figured it was time for a new one.

We went to Lowe's and ended up ordering a new glass cooktop which will arrive on March 15.

Yes, I said March 15! I didn't know they were building it specifically for us.

While we were there (during the Presidents Day Sale) Karen found a French-door refrigerator that she really likes. Seeing as our refrigerator is about 27 years old, the new one looked even better.

Since we were out shopping for appliances and our cooktop was down we stopped by one of our favorite local spots for some Chinese food.

Since my laptop died a few weeks ago, I ordered a new one on Amazon. It's running Windows 10 and during the setup I had to answer these questions about privacy. Needless to say, I turned them all off and you should too.

What worries me is that for each question I am asked I figure there are about ten others I don't get any options on. Remember privacy? You know, when every company in the world didn't need to track every bit of information about you 24/7? I do, and the current state of things is depressing.

Remember: Just say, "No."

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