Wednesday, February 08, 2012

They don't make 'em like that anymore!

I enjoy fixing things.  So much so that my wife thinks I enjoy TRYING to fix things.  For me, not being able to complete the process is extremely annoying.  But I'm already ahead of myself.

It started a couple weeks ago but I didn't hear about it until a week ago when Carolyn mentioned that our stove-top griddle wasn't working, hadn't worked for a number of weeks.  It's usually not a crucial part of our cooking equipment so it wasn't high priority.  Still, it seemed a shame to have a perfectly good griddle sit idle while we fry pancakes in an electric frying pan.

When I got a little time last week, I took the switch assembly off and easily found the culprit.  One of the Line-In wires had broken off.  However, as I tried to remove the broken lug so we could add a new end-connector, the switch literally fell apart in my hands.  Suddenly the job got more serious.  Now I would have to replace a part.  Heat had made the connector block on the switch so fragile that pulling the old line and heating element wires off pulled half the switch out as well.

I went to the Internet to order that part.  The two largest supply dealers described the part.  However one supplier said No Longer Available.  They only "believed in" parts manufactured in the U.S.A.  The other one said they didn't have the part and didn't know anyone who did.  However, if they did have it, it would cost $60.   Discouraged, I closed up the stove top and began looking for a new stove top.  It seemed such a shame to spend $2,000 because you couldn't find a $60 part.

Turns out there is an appliance sales and service company in Sacramento that everyone here should know about.  Zajic's Appliance Sales & Service at 2459 Fruitridge Rd, Sacramento, CA 95822, (916) 452-6748.  http://www.zajicappliance.com/

Their website isn't much to look at but the Yelp entry for the Zajic's has one 5-star review after another.  Carolyn described the situation and the part over the phone and was assured they had it.  They offered to come out and install it or help us through the install on the phone.  As it turned out the instructions were clear.  The part well made.  We're back up and running having spent $34 instead of $2,000 or even $60.

Monday, February 06, 2012

Sleep Number

What costs more than a small car, has four remote controls and 6 motors, and wants you to spend a third of your life with it?

Answer:  The latest in Sleep Number beds.

We're getting of an age when we will start having and more "last time" experiences such as "this is the last time I'll need to reroof the house" or "This refrigerator has a 15 year warranty, that should run until I die" or "I think I better skip that bunch of green bananas".  So I wasn't too surprised when Carolyn suggested we buy a Sleep Number bed.  This is the one that has 20 different firmness settings for the mattress from "about like sleeping on the ground" to "firm as an overstuffed pillow".  We needed a new bed because ours was getting old and saggy (like me).  And if we were going to get a "last bed" we could really go all out and buy the best.

We spent two sessions with Kelly at the store in the Arden Fair Mall.  She was polite, professional, and an excellent salesperson.  She had all the answers and most of the questions.  It wasn't difficult to decide to buy from her.  Quite frankly, after shopping there, other stores and other mattresses just didn't seem as interesting.

Jump forward two weeks.  Although we had asked for a Saturday delivery, the company called with a Wednesday delivery date.  I was ticked but Carolyn thinks they were just giving us a choice of an earlier delivery date and that hadn't affect our Saturday delivery at all.










As promised the delivery staff arrived to take our old bed and leave this beautiful new one in its place.  Hauling box after box from their truck, it looked like a regular moving van.  Then began the fun of putting it all together.


When they were done, Carolyn started putting together all the pieces (sheets, covers, pillows, etc.) she'd been getting for the past two weeks.  Lastly we bolted the headboard to the wall, pushed everything together and got ready for bed.

How was it?  The first night I didn't think I slept that good.  Carolyn says I slept like a log.  I had tried the lowest sleep number (5) and it felt like sleeping on the floor with a 2 inch foam mat.  The next night I started at the highest number (100) then moved down to (75) in the middle of the night.  That's been the best so far.  Of course, at the same time I'm trying the various settings for watching TV, raising my feet higher than my head, lounging, and just plain level.  I'll have to report back in a couple of weeks to see if I've found MY Sleep Number.