With a little shifting around of the letters… This past December, our 29-year-old HVAC system, both the air handler and heat pump, failed simultaneously. I don’t know why I should be surprised by this. We have a motto in the Lowe family when it comes to hardware—run it until it explodes. Which is essentially what it did. “Nothing stops a Trane… except you not taking care of it.” Words I remember from our home inspector many years ago Inside the garage, I could hear clicking and an...

I have discovered that the van is the ultimate member of the car collection. In our family, before my wife or I leaves we ask, "Are you taking the car... or the VAN?" The van is the prize of the fleet, packing seats for the entire family, without exception. I once heard a mechanic affectionately refer to them as ‘kid haulers.’ Should you yourself come into possession of a kid hauler, you will learn that your young passengers feel differently about your vehicle than you do. They attend to it,...

At the end of April I spent a week at Prairie Trace Elementary School. There are over 700 students from K-5th grade. It was a whirlwind...