In 3's

Do problems come in 3's?  You've all heard that before, right?  Anyway, I just posted about the microwave meltdown and Doug's slow but sure repair.  Just before our mini-vacation the Crown Vic had a dead battery which Doug took care of on Saturday when we got back into town.  And the post will explain the 3rd.

Well for the past week or two I have noticed a faint bad smell when entering the house.  I have looked high and low for the source of the odor but to no avail.  I sniffed and smelled in our bedroom, bathroom, the laundry room, and the living room.  I have been burning a scented candle more often to try to make sure the house didn't smell totally bad.  I usually smelled the odor as I entered through the garage.  So I would set my stuff down and sniff around until either the odor dissipated or until my nose got used to it.  I even asked my mom when she came over if she noticed anything.  She didn't seem to smell a thing. 

But each time I would get that whiff of nastiness - like food spoiling or something like that.  So when I smelled it again just before our mini-vacation I tore into a small end table that is stuffed with an 72 hour emergency supply kit.  I took out all the bottled water to see if they had leaked and caused the wood to stink - but nothing.  I emptied the backpacks only to find that there was no "wet" food to spoil - just a #10 can of dried type nourishment.  Nope - no smell in there.  It was crazy - no source of the smell could be found.

Then when I walked into the house yesterday I could really smell it.  I was sure it came from somewhere in the laundry room.  Isaac had started a batch of laundry and it was in the dryer spinning and spinning (shame on him for doing it on Sunday).  AH HA!  That was the smell - a strong sort of hot rubber type smell.  I called Doug in and he too agreed that it was a burning type of chemical smell.  Finally, at least someone else could smell it. 

He emptied the dryer out and continued to dismantle the dryer.  The reason he started that on Sunday was that Monday is the day the missionaries do their laundry.  So we were hoping to get the problem identified so he could get it fixed quickly on Monday.  He tore it down and even though he found a couple of plastic pads worn through to the metal - there was no odor now and that really wouldn't have caused the bad odor.  So now what?

While working in the laundry room we still seemed to be able to get faint whiffs of the odor.  So the only other option was the freezer.  Our attention turned that way and sure enough when the freezer would cycle on we would smell it.  Then we noticed that the freezer would only be "on" for a couple seconds and then go right off.  So we were sure that the freezer was going out.  The freezer has a high temperature sensor that would go off if the temperature started getting too warm and that was not activated as of yet.  But that only lasted until sometime in the middle of the night.

I let Doug get up to handle it - I think he ended up going out to buy some dry ice.  As I type this I am not sure because I don't want to open the freezer to find out and Doug is still sleeping.  I know he put a call into our family appliance expert, Doug DeWitt, to talk about what we could do to repair it.  But I think the freezer is going to have to go. 

So luckily Doug has already signed off as a vacation day and doesn't have to go into work.  Unluckily it looks as though his vacation day is going to be spent re-assembling the dryer and either trying to repair a freezer or buying a new one.  I think that actually makes it project 3 AND 4. 

And I thought these things only came in 3's.