Kiki’s Korner

It seems my old girl is tired. On the way to a client meeting the other morning – the check engine, oil and battery lights all came on at once and then a minute later, she stopped. Dead. In the middle of the road. Thank goodness I was on a side street and not in the fast lane on Highway 280 like I was just 5 minutes before. I was able to get her to the side for the road and me out of harm’s way.

A tow truck took me to a local service station, 24 hours and a couple of dollars later, I learn she needs a major overhaul ($1k+) if I expect her to continue to run. She does have 220k miles on her, but I take care of her and not sure why the hell she is so unhappy.

Checking Kelly Blue Book I realize plunking that much cash is not worth it. Especially as the motor to the sunroof needed replacing ($800) and tires were in order soon ($500).

So the big question is no longer whether or not I fix her, instead it is what am I going to replace her with? (Kristie heads off to buy more lotto tickets)

P.S. Try to ignore the 8 inches of dust on the dash. Probably why Bessie is so angry. She needs a cleaning. Bad.

So my husband turns 40 this month. We plan to celebrate it. Big time. We shall ring in the next decade of his life, thankful we all made it through the last one . Heuer deserves a party. He has earned it.

When discussing food of choice…there was no hesitation in his voice. Heuer wanted a pig roast. A pig roast? Ok…so I offer to call around and see who can cater a pig roast. The big grin on his face told me he had others plans…

Heuer says, ‘we can do it ourselves. It will be awesome’.

You see, it seems there is this thing called the internet. And the internet told my husband we could build a pit in our back yard, and roast a pig. Me thinks I shall need to find a way to shut off this internet thing…this cannot end well.

Actually, after reading through the website a few times, it all seemed really simple. A couple of cinder blocks, some tin foil and a couple feet of aluminum fencing. No problem. We head to Home Depot and pick up 48 cinder blocks. However, we did get a little surprise during our trip to ‘DIY land’ when we learn Home Depot does not carry aluminum fencing anymore, all they have is galvanized steel. Seems everything used for outdoor fencing now (chain link, chicken wire, etc.) is galvanized steel. The problem? You cannot let galvanized steel touch food you plan to eat as it rusts the minute something wet touches it. Bummer.

But onward we go. This is just one store. There are several lumber yards / hardware stores in the area, we just need to spend a little more time researching it. Confident we will find the aluminum fencing somewhere else, we load the 48 cinder blocks into the truck, head home and start building the base.

Three days later, 10+ calls and several in person trips to local lumber yards, we were still without the chain link for the ‘grill’. Wrench, meet our plan.

We started talking about option B: buying a pre-made Cuban box. Problem was we didn’t think we could get it shipped in time without paying through the nose for it. Then, talk of catering came back up. Several calls brought a price tag we could not afford. We had to solve for this.

I am in another frustrating round of calls, hearing the manager from a metal grating plant in Stockton tell me he can’t get his piece to me in time, when he says…’hey…if you are in San Francisco, you should try Flynn & Enslow’. Flynn & Enslow? Who the hell is that? A quick web search for their name, another phone call and low and behold – a business not five miles from our house can make exactly what we need, for the price that fits perfectly within our budget.

Unreal. I had searched the internet for four days. I used every key word I could think of. Flynn & Enslow never came up. Think maybe they should hire a SEO expert to improve their ranking. Gah. Would be nice to get my three days back, but nothing I can do about it now.

A couple of cuts, some metal wiring and poles that will provide the support…and we were on our way.

Happy to have this homegrown grill finally coming together, we order the pig. A 100lb pig. We are ready to party.

As we hit the half way mark of the third drought year in California, the future of our water supply has become the topic de jure in the Bay Area.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has asked all California residents to reduce their water consumption 20 percent by 2020. The Heuer-Wells household is trying to do our part by limiting how long our showers are. We run the washing machine (and dishwasher) only when there are full loads. We have let our amazing backyard turn into a sea of brown.

We are making changes in our daily life to help, and judging by our water bill, we are making an impact, small albeit, but an impact nonetheless.

Then I come across several articles recently that discuss the role of meters in water conservation, and learn there are several cities in California, our State Capitol (Sacramento) being one of them, where water can’t be rationed because houses don’t have water meters.

Some facts around water metering in California:

* All homes built after 1992 are required to have meters.
* Cities that receive federal water supplies must install meters by 2013.
* All California cities must be metered by 2025.

Sacramento is working to have water meters installed in every house by the year 2025, but in the mean time (15 years), residents are simply charged a flat rate for any amount of water they use. WTF!!??

Fresno is another city without water meters. Residents are using on average, just under 290 gallons of water per person per day. That’s more than Las Vegas, which is close to 250. The U.S. average, according to the United States Geological Survey, is 100 gallons a day. Fresno and Las Vegas residents are using 2.5+ times more water than residents in San Francisco – draining our reservoirs while enjoying their green grass – yet San Francisco residents are the ones on water rationing. This frosts my ass. Completely.

All I can hope is more cities will call for various forms of water rations. We all need to do our part. We all need to be conscious of what is happening in other cities. We need to come together and make sacrifices to ensure we do not delete the resources at hand.