My Weekend

I'd mentioned a few weeks ago that my dryer had begun making horrendous noises whenever I ran it.  I put up with it as long as I could, even waiting to start the dryer when I was on my way out to work.  The problem with that was I kept forgetting.  After leaving some towels in the dryer for a week without every turning said dryer on, I decided it was high time I got it fixed.

My first inclination was to pay someone to do it, but with the hours we are working, it's kind of hard to find time for that.  Then I said to myself, "Self, you don't need to pay anyone for that.  You can order the parts online and do it yourself."  And that's exactly what I did.

I got on Amazon and ordered a new felt seal, and upon the recommendation of a FB friend, I decided to change the bearing, too.  It's a good thing I took his advice, as this is what the old bearing looks like.

That whole left side is supposed to be solid plastic, so yeah, I'd say it was past time to replace it.

And this is all that was left of the felt seal.

With the help of a few YouTube videos, it only took about half an hour to change those parts out -- and that includes time watching said videos.  Once I'd gotten done, I washed and dried four loads of laundry, and squealed like a fangirl every time I started it and heard near silence.   Whee!  No more shrieking banshee!  No more clothes getting stuck between the drum and the front panel!  No more forgetting to start the dryer because I don't want to listen to the noise! 

Now, I just need to pry Jesse and the cat off the bed so I can wash their comforter.

Moving right along...(Man, I need to come up with a better segue)

I found a new plant to hang by my mailbox.  This is a geranium ivy, and it looks a lot better than that pathetic looking viola.

One of these days, used book stores are going to be the end of me.  I managed to find one of my favorite childhood books last week.

Of course, that title would never fly in today's hyper-offended PC world, but it is such a good book.  If you've ever read Sign Of The Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare, this one is very similar.  I'd originally thought Speare had simply copied this one, changing just enough details to avoid copyright infringement, but upon further research, I discovered that both books were taken from the same source material -- a paragraph in a history book about the state of Maine.  That's why the stories are so similar. 

It is available for Kindle, if you want to read it.  And I highly recommend you do.