Back to reality meant getting up early to greet our appliance repair guy, Doug, who was knocking on our door at 8 o'clock. Before we left on our Football Road Trip, our dishwasher had developed a high-pitched squeal and would not work.
Luckily, we have a two-part dishwasher, the Fisher & Paykel DishDrawer, so we could still use the lower portion while the top drawer took a sick day.
The culprit in our dishwasher squeal turned out to be a teeny chip of glass in the rotor/drainy thing. Who knew?
Doug knew. He heard the loud scream from the machine and knew immediately what was what. Doug used a turkey baster to drain the water from the center rotor housing, then went in there with a mirror and VOILA - the small shard appeared in his mirror.

Yeah, Doug!
Doug is kinda famous around our town. He can fix any appliance. He still had to charge us the minimum $75 (house call) though. Dang.
No matter how small the piece of glass.

I know what is happening around here today. A huge wind storm. Crazy. Hurricane-force winds on the coast, and gale-force winds here, 50 miles inland. Stuff (fir cones and branches) keep hitting our roof, creating frightening noises. Wind is blowing the trees around. The noise is absolutely deafening.
One particular tree, which has been featured many times on this blog, is doing a serious lean. Not sure it will be standing in the morning. The 40-plus-year-old Douglas Fir is on her last legs anyway, but is very popular with the local raptors as a resting spot.


Until my next update, I remain, your blustery correspondent.