Day of the Machines

What's the difference between a tool and a machine?

A tool is reliably compliant whereas a machine is just waiting to turn on you.

We're in the middle of some weather, yard prone to flooding, bought trash pump to keep ahead of the rain.

Before the deluge, yard already saturated with this week's steady pour. And more is coming.

Will Trashy the trash pump help, or will more water instantly well up to replace what gets pumped out? Running a gas engine to alter the natural order feels perverse and I hope we can evolve a more natural, passive drainage solution. But this is damage control mode to keep water away from the house, so I sold my soul to The Machines.

And it didn't stop there! Laundry crisis imminent, hooking up washer and dryer was a priority. I knew the electrical outlets worked, but was the drainpipe still connected? Would the leaky old faucet valves fail? Laundry vent combust? Will the Whirlpools we got free off craigslist even work? Listen for yourself:

Actually, it did work, even if it sounded fit to throw a rod. Maybe I'll become a 10-minute expert on washing machine repair next.

 
This may be a funky legacy setup, but it beats driving half an hour to the nearest laundromat.

...I'm not the only ghost in the machine.


These mousers toyed with their kill until we lost track of it.
It ended tangled up in our dirty clothes. Sorry, mousey!

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