Spin those wheels...
Today was a kind of frustrating day. All week long I had planned on power washing my deck today and staining it tomorrow. I have very few days off where I can actually devote time to getting stuff like this accomplished, so I was looking forward to tackling this project and spending some time outside.
My father-in-law was kind enough to let me borrow his power washer. I freely admit I am not the most mechanically inclined fellow, but I can usually figure stuff out. This power washer is about as easy as can be: water in (check), water out (check), water supply on (check), washer plugged in (check), turn washer on (check) pull trigger and wash away...
Well, not so fast.
For the life of me I could not get water to come out of that thing. I even went so far as to bother my father-in-law at his work to see if I was being my usual idiot self and overlooking something obvious, but everything seemed to be in place.
After going through everything piece by piece, I finally narrowed down the problem (I think) to the nozzle attachment. It looked rusted and corroded, so I soaked the whole thing in Lime-A-Way for an hour, thinking I had the problem figured out, but no dice. I even ran a wire through the piece trying to break up anything that might be corroded, but I couldn't find anything small and sturdy enough to pass all the way through.
I dinked around for three hours trying to get this power washer to work, but I finally gave up because it was getting into the middle of the afternoon and I had to get this deck washed. So I did it the old fashioned way, by hand. It doesn't look very good. In fact, it pretty much looks like crap. I hope it looks better after I stain it. Um... I guess the whole point is to look better after I stain it, right?
Yeah, I could have rented a power washer today -- and I thought about it. But that idea didn't get past the thinking stage. I was too consumed trying to fix whatever was broken. In fact, I was so concentrating on my little inquest that I thought my dog ran away at one point. I looked around and couldn't find her -- I knew she had come outside with me; then I realized the garage door was open. Oh shit. I ran out to the driveway calling her name, thinking that this had become the worst day ever, and there she was standing right behind me with that "How stupid are you?" look on her face.
Good dog, Gracie. Goooooood dog.
So tonight I decided to spray WD-40 down the problem nozzle piece and let it sit overnight. Maybe that will loosen up stuff? I am sure I didn't break anything -- but some times all I have to do is plug something in and it breaks automatically. That's just me.
So here I am spinning those wheels. I'm getting good at it.
Maybe tomorrow will be better?
Boy, this blog entry is riveting isn't it??
My father-in-law was kind enough to let me borrow his power washer. I freely admit I am not the most mechanically inclined fellow, but I can usually figure stuff out. This power washer is about as easy as can be: water in (check), water out (check), water supply on (check), washer plugged in (check), turn washer on (check) pull trigger and wash away...
Well, not so fast.
For the life of me I could not get water to come out of that thing. I even went so far as to bother my father-in-law at his work to see if I was being my usual idiot self and overlooking something obvious, but everything seemed to be in place.
After going through everything piece by piece, I finally narrowed down the problem (I think) to the nozzle attachment. It looked rusted and corroded, so I soaked the whole thing in Lime-A-Way for an hour, thinking I had the problem figured out, but no dice. I even ran a wire through the piece trying to break up anything that might be corroded, but I couldn't find anything small and sturdy enough to pass all the way through.
I dinked around for three hours trying to get this power washer to work, but I finally gave up because it was getting into the middle of the afternoon and I had to get this deck washed. So I did it the old fashioned way, by hand. It doesn't look very good. In fact, it pretty much looks like crap. I hope it looks better after I stain it. Um... I guess the whole point is to look better after I stain it, right?
Yeah, I could have rented a power washer today -- and I thought about it. But that idea didn't get past the thinking stage. I was too consumed trying to fix whatever was broken. In fact, I was so concentrating on my little inquest that I thought my dog ran away at one point. I looked around and couldn't find her -- I knew she had come outside with me; then I realized the garage door was open. Oh shit. I ran out to the driveway calling her name, thinking that this had become the worst day ever, and there she was standing right behind me with that "How stupid are you?" look on her face.
Good dog, Gracie. Goooooood dog.
So tonight I decided to spray WD-40 down the problem nozzle piece and let it sit overnight. Maybe that will loosen up stuff? I am sure I didn't break anything -- but some times all I have to do is plug something in and it breaks automatically. That's just me.
So here I am spinning those wheels. I'm getting good at it.
Maybe tomorrow will be better?
Boy, this blog entry is riveting isn't it??
