A Good Day
Sep. 13th, 2026 12:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
codyneYesterday was one of those rare days when everything went right for a change.
I had two things I was working on. Thing One: my microwave had started sparking and popping and I had to stop using it. I narrowed down the problem to the stirrer blade cover -- and it required much online searching to even find out what the thing was called -- a thin sheet of mica-infused board with a little plastic fitting in the center that holds the circular stirrer blade in the roof of the microwave. These covers get grease-stained and worn out over time and eventually the microwaves start sparking off them.
No problem, I thought, just one little replacement cover and I'm good to go! Except, my microwave is 22 years old (has a sticker date-stamped Oct 2004 inside the door), long discontinued, and that particular replacement cover can no longer be found anywhere, not on the Frigidaire site, other appliance supply stores, eBay, Amazon -- it does not exist. No other microwave covers are remotely the right size or shape.
I was beginning to think I'd have to replace the whole microwave. It's an over-the-range model, which tends to be expensive compared to countertop units, and not super easy to install. I watched a video on YouTube on how to install an over-the-range microwave and it looked... doable, but not without difficulty. But it would be another $150 to hire someone to install it, on top of the $250 or so for the microwave, so I'd have given it a try if it came to that.
The only other option would be to try to DIY a replacement cover. You can buy sheets of the cover material to be cut to size, but mine wasn't a simple cover, it's round on one end, has lots of little cut-outs to fit into the clips on the microwave, and, most problematic, seven tiny holes of various shapes and sizes in the center of the cover for the plastic spindle to fit into. I seriously doubted my ability to carve out all those little holes properly. But I did find one seller with sheets large enough for my cover for $20, and decided it was worth the try to see if I could fix it rather than replacing the entire microwave for over 10x the cost. So I ordered the sheet and was awaiting its arrival.
Thing Two: When I traded in my van, I still had two 5-year service contracts on it, one for tires and wheels and one for roadside assistance. Since I only had the van for three years, the contracts had two years to go, so I wanted to cancel them and get some money back from them. These kinds of service contracts are bought through the dealer you buy the vehicle from and financed through the loan on the vehicle (and are probably mostly not worth what you pay for them, but I seem to always get talked into one or two, I'm a sucker). So they have to be canceled by the dealer you bought them from. I'd called the dealer and explained that the van had been traded in and I wanted to cancel the remaining service contracts, so they emailed me a form to fill out and send back, and they also wanted me to send a copy of my sales contract for the new trailer, showing that the van was a trade-in and would be paid off (so they would send the refund to me instead of to the bank holding the loan), and a copy of the odometer reading at the time of trade in, because these contracts are good for "X years or Y miles" and they needed to verify I hadn't exceeded the mileage of the contract.
The first two things were easy: print out the cancellation form, sign it and scan it. Scan a copy of the sales contract. But I didn't have the odometer statement, so I would have to get it from the dealer I bought the trailer from. I'd called the dealer and left a message for the sales guy, but hadn't heard back from him.
And that's where I was yesterday morning. I was still waiting for the microwave cover sheet and the odometer statement to proceed on things. I decided to check the tracking on the cover sheet and found that it was waiting at the post office, so I drove to the post office to pick it up.
While I was at the post office, I ran into my brother and SIL, who told me they were on their way to the trailer dealer to pick up a new fender for their trailer. I mentioned that I needed to get an odometer statement on my van from the same dealer, but I hadn't heard back from them yet. So they told me they'd try to get it for me while they were there.
So I went home with my microwave cover sheet, laid the old sheet on top as a template and outlined it, including all the tiny holes, made sure there was a sharp new blade in my utility knife, and VERY CAREFULLY cut out a new cover. A bit of fiddling got the plastic spindle installed, and amazingly, it fit perfectly into the slots in the microwave. I tested the microwave on a cup of water, and it works! No more sparks or pops! I did it! I fixed my microwave!
Then my brother came by with the odometer statement. Turns out the guy had gotten my message, even though he hadn't called me back, and had a copy waiting on his desk when my brother went in to ask. So I scanned that and emailed the docs to the van dealer and got that taken care of.
I keep thinking about how it all came together: if I hadn't checked the tracking on the microwave cover sheet when I did, I wouldn't have gone to the post office that morning, I wouldn't have run into my brother, and I wouldn't have gotten the microwave fixed or the cancellation docs completed yesterday. So often when you're trying to get things done, something goes wrong, something gets lost, communication goes awry, and one simple thing seems to take forever. But every once in a while, the universe shines on you and everything goes right.
I'm going to bask in this one as long as I can!
I had two things I was working on. Thing One: my microwave had started sparking and popping and I had to stop using it. I narrowed down the problem to the stirrer blade cover -- and it required much online searching to even find out what the thing was called -- a thin sheet of mica-infused board with a little plastic fitting in the center that holds the circular stirrer blade in the roof of the microwave. These covers get grease-stained and worn out over time and eventually the microwaves start sparking off them.
No problem, I thought, just one little replacement cover and I'm good to go! Except, my microwave is 22 years old (has a sticker date-stamped Oct 2004 inside the door), long discontinued, and that particular replacement cover can no longer be found anywhere, not on the Frigidaire site, other appliance supply stores, eBay, Amazon -- it does not exist. No other microwave covers are remotely the right size or shape.
I was beginning to think I'd have to replace the whole microwave. It's an over-the-range model, which tends to be expensive compared to countertop units, and not super easy to install. I watched a video on YouTube on how to install an over-the-range microwave and it looked... doable, but not without difficulty. But it would be another $150 to hire someone to install it, on top of the $250 or so for the microwave, so I'd have given it a try if it came to that.
The only other option would be to try to DIY a replacement cover. You can buy sheets of the cover material to be cut to size, but mine wasn't a simple cover, it's round on one end, has lots of little cut-outs to fit into the clips on the microwave, and, most problematic, seven tiny holes of various shapes and sizes in the center of the cover for the plastic spindle to fit into. I seriously doubted my ability to carve out all those little holes properly. But I did find one seller with sheets large enough for my cover for $20, and decided it was worth the try to see if I could fix it rather than replacing the entire microwave for over 10x the cost. So I ordered the sheet and was awaiting its arrival.
Thing Two: When I traded in my van, I still had two 5-year service contracts on it, one for tires and wheels and one for roadside assistance. Since I only had the van for three years, the contracts had two years to go, so I wanted to cancel them and get some money back from them. These kinds of service contracts are bought through the dealer you buy the vehicle from and financed through the loan on the vehicle (and are probably mostly not worth what you pay for them, but I seem to always get talked into one or two, I'm a sucker). So they have to be canceled by the dealer you bought them from. I'd called the dealer and explained that the van had been traded in and I wanted to cancel the remaining service contracts, so they emailed me a form to fill out and send back, and they also wanted me to send a copy of my sales contract for the new trailer, showing that the van was a trade-in and would be paid off (so they would send the refund to me instead of to the bank holding the loan), and a copy of the odometer reading at the time of trade in, because these contracts are good for "X years or Y miles" and they needed to verify I hadn't exceeded the mileage of the contract.
The first two things were easy: print out the cancellation form, sign it and scan it. Scan a copy of the sales contract. But I didn't have the odometer statement, so I would have to get it from the dealer I bought the trailer from. I'd called the dealer and left a message for the sales guy, but hadn't heard back from him.
And that's where I was yesterday morning. I was still waiting for the microwave cover sheet and the odometer statement to proceed on things. I decided to check the tracking on the cover sheet and found that it was waiting at the post office, so I drove to the post office to pick it up.
While I was at the post office, I ran into my brother and SIL, who told me they were on their way to the trailer dealer to pick up a new fender for their trailer. I mentioned that I needed to get an odometer statement on my van from the same dealer, but I hadn't heard back from them yet. So they told me they'd try to get it for me while they were there.
So I went home with my microwave cover sheet, laid the old sheet on top as a template and outlined it, including all the tiny holes, made sure there was a sharp new blade in my utility knife, and VERY CAREFULLY cut out a new cover. A bit of fiddling got the plastic spindle installed, and amazingly, it fit perfectly into the slots in the microwave. I tested the microwave on a cup of water, and it works! No more sparks or pops! I did it! I fixed my microwave!
Then my brother came by with the odometer statement. Turns out the guy had gotten my message, even though he hadn't called me back, and had a copy waiting on his desk when my brother went in to ask. So I scanned that and emailed the docs to the van dealer and got that taken care of.
I keep thinking about how it all came together: if I hadn't checked the tracking on the microwave cover sheet when I did, I wouldn't have gone to the post office that morning, I wouldn't have run into my brother, and I wouldn't have gotten the microwave fixed or the cancellation docs completed yesterday. So often when you're trying to get things done, something goes wrong, something gets lost, communication goes awry, and one simple thing seems to take forever. But every once in a while, the universe shines on you and everything goes right.
I'm going to bask in this one as long as I can!
