Fixed Things

Remember the keyboard from September 24th that stopped typing an uppercase U?   Remember how I thought it was solved?   I was wrong.   Today,  I spent some time on the phone not once, not twice, but three times with Apple Support.   They were great.   We all hoped it was a software problem and there were many things that pointed to it likely being that.  

It turned out to be a hardware issue though, so this evening I abandoned my husband with the children, leaving him to wash them without getting my daughter's chin wet.  I went off to the Apple store with my keyboard in hand and forty-three minutes later I was home with a new keyboard.  

It was a frustrating several days, but the service and people I worked with were great.  I am so terribly thrilled that when I type tonight, "The Big Boy Update" it will actually be an update an not a pdate.

On the whole front of fixed things, I have had a year-long problem with our dryer.  I can't remember if I wrote about it here because the number of mental cycles I spent frustrated over the whole situation has the memories blurring together.   Suffice it to say we had a dryer with chronic issues that was at first under warranty and later not, but in either case was challenging to find repair people to work on it because it was an unpopular model.

After getting frustrated enough that I took the dryer apart one day myself and discovered plastic parts wearing on each other (thus causing the loud, grinding noise that was driving me mad) I made a desperate call to the manufacturer to see if I could personally order the part for the third replacement. I explained the situation and was suddenly sent up to a manger—without even asking—and that's when the entire situation started to get better.

This manager, Matt, was so helpful.   He coordinated a repairperson and told me history behind the dryer model, saying it had been made by a secondary company and that the in-service date on the one we got was three years after the product had been manufactured.   He understood why it was hard to find people to repair it—because it was poorly made.  

We tried a repair and that lasted a short while.   Then, almost four years after we bought the dryer, he said he would refund the full amount and have someone come and pick up the unit to get it out of circulation.   I tell you, I almost cried right there on the phone with the relief of having the unit gone.

My husband and I did research and Consumer Reports was consulted.   Yesterday we had delivered a new washer and dryer and I am thrilled.    When the dryer runs now, I don't even know it's on.   It is a delight.   The washer and dryer take less time to run their cycles and, well, I could gush some more, but know that I am thrilled to be doing laundry now.

The Big Boy Update:  My son must be playing I Spy at school because he said in the car the other day, "I spy with my little eye, something that starts with 'Sssss'"  They're working on letter sounds at schools.   We were in the car and he told us he was spying a "Sign".

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:   My daughter's chin is weeping less, but still looks terrible from the abrasion on top of the cut.   We're taking her in to see a plastic surgeon tomorrow (something we planned from the start) to make sure the healing is going as expected.