snafu-d stove

in which our plucky heroine is feeling rather grouchy...

Woke up today all full of hope and excitement. I'd spent a good chunk of yesterday moving things around in the kitchen, to make it easier for the delivery people to remove old POS stove and install excellent new stove.

the old stove, missing the exploded oven door, with the adjacent space usually taken up by the bakers rack all empty

the other side of the kitchen, with some of the bakers rack contents piled in various spots. This is actually going to be a great opportunity for me to do some sorting out of what is kept on hand where in the kitchen, before simply putting it all back the way it was! I suspect that a fair amount of what was being stored in this prime kitchen real estate is best either stored elsewhere, or given away. The tools and supplies right to hand ought be those in daily use...

the initial arrival of the stove was great, smack dab in the center of the time allotment, and with a 20 minute phone warning of arrival.

At that point things began to go south. While the nice delivery people were entirely willing to hook up the stove, the "universal" gas line flex tube is not all that "universal" and what appear to be adapters, aren't. This was the additional part that Lowes customer service insisted was necessary and the only one that they sell. A steel flex line is definitely necessary, but them telling me it adapts to different sizes of line valves was false.

Next, the power cord on the stove turned out to not be 6ft long as I'd been told by Frigidaire customer service, but only 4ft long. Considering how much time I've spent online trying to get that information prior to purchasing the stove, I was not happy at all. A six foot cord would easily reach the outlet. A four foot cord, not at all. I spent another several hours trying to access a human person at Frigidaire customer service to find out whether it was possible, say, to buy a longer cord. (and why pray tell I had been given incorrect information earlier?!?) Apparently not, and no one could tell me anything at all.

(I understand that customer service is an awful job, that pays badly, and that the people I am talking to are working from home, and know nothing at all about the products that people are calling them about. Still, that is most frustrating as a customer with legitimate questions not answerable by just looking at the website!)

Lovely stove, still not hooked up.

Five burners: 17,000 BTU (power burner), 5000 BTU (simmer burner), 2@ 9500 BTU (medium burner), 14,000 BTU (high burner)

While waiting on hold, I began reading the installation manual, where there was an entire section of one page about hooking up the electrical cord (Ummm it is a grounded plug, how hard is it to just make sure to plug it into a grounded outlet?) that talked about using an extension cord. So apparently people try and do that, which hadn't occurred to me. It should have, since I ran both my fridge and my chest freezer on extension cords for a number of years when I first moved here.

The best safe way is to make sure that the extension cord is both grounded and suitably rated for the necessary power draw. I was able to get a heavy duty 3 ft extension cord at the local hardware store so at least that problem is solved. The long bike ride to and from the hardware store did help my mental health somewhat, and fortunately I have a fair amount of pre-made meals in the freezer that only need thawed and microwaved (homemade soup, stuffed cabbage, teriyaki chicken) and between the micro and convection oven I will manage. But I am still annoyed at being lied to by both Lowes customer services and Frigidaire customer services.

Fingers crossed that my friend Chance will be able to do the installation. Waiting to hear back from him

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Tomorrow I go to the hospital diagnostics for an ultrasound of my middle, to try and discover what is causing the bulge in my navel.. So, early dinner and no breakfast tomorrow. Best likely option is an umbilical hernia, which will mean surgery. I am purposefully not thinking about various worse possible options.

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October SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	tie-dye top	sample leaf and stem	yard waste bin
2	-	pruned Japanese maple	recycle bin
3	-	assemble OMAR	recycle bin
4	-	repaired door closer	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - my new stove is in the building, long awaited and courtesy of the kindness of friends.