The Curse of the Dark Cloud

It's at times like this when I truly believe we all have to have adversity hit us between the eyes a few times in order to get things into perspective.  It doesn't have to be life threatening, just annoyances to drive you bonkers.

This past week has been such a time for us.  We don't have much to complain about really, but things happen to annoy us and  because we're older we don't cope as well as we used to.  We tend to get flustered easy.  When that happens, the male of this couple usually goes ballistic.  I listen, not happily, to the tirade then I leave.  I don't like to be any one's whipping person and least of all my male partner.

We have had a spate of things happen in the last week which would make any person fly off the handle, and it happened.  The initial aggravation happened with my car.  It's old. I love it. I don't want to buy a new one. I want this car to live forever.  Alas, I know that can't be the case but honestly, does it have to die a little at a time?

I heard a "thud".  I heard the "thud" again.  Then it happened for the third time.  I decided I better have the "thud" checked out.   My mechanic of choice is a guy who is honest and an expert in my particular car.  He said to me, "What's wrong?" I told him about the "thud".  He looks at me and says, "Did this "thud" happen when you were driving or when you started up the engine?" I told him it seemed to happen whenever it wanted to happen and I didn't really know when it originally started...(I'm of the belief if you ignore "thuds" in the car, sometimes they fix themselves...this one didn't fix itself).

Into the garage it went...The "thud" was fixed along with the removal of $600.00 from my savings account.  One problem solved...

Driving into the garage, I see my partner in crime waving at me.  Now what? I thought.  The dehumidifier was running for the first time this season and ran and ran and ran for over 36 hours straight and didn't take out 1 millimeter of water from the air in the basement. 

The male partner started saying words I've only ever heard from drunken sailors or really angry bikers.  I'm not sure I knew what the words meant but I could guess.  Along with the dirty word tribute to the dehumidifier came some choice words aimed at yours truly. Why? you ask? How the Hell should I know..I think I was the closest thing there that would maybe make some kind of reaction...Who knows?  I left the house in my newly non-thuding car.

I came home several hours later to an empty house, the male partner took of as well, and turned on the dishwasher.  It started, then sounded like it was going to blow up.  I shut the damned thing off.  A little while later I tried it again.  No good, not even a groan.

I went down to the basement to access the damage to the dehumidifier and to see if there was something I could do to get the thing to suck out some water.  Nothing...it ran ok but it didn't do anything except run up the electric bill. I did find a customer service number to call.

Thinking I'd get a run around but I'd try anyway, I called the service number.  Amazingly, the response was a real, honest to God person, who spoke English with no accent, well, there was an accent, but it was an accent from Georgia, (the US Georgia, not the Asia Georgia in what was once Russia..you know what I'm talking about).  Wonder of wonders, success, I was able to tell my tale of woe, and was referred to another person who stated the company would buy back my dehumidifier for a full refund.  Wow, I couldn't believe it.

The male partner in crime came home still in a snit.  I let him stew a bit before telling him the news about the dehumidifier.  I figured I deserved the glory a bit longer before sharing it.

The dishwasher was still in some sort of limbo, but there was no way I was bringing that up at that time.  I went out to my car, turned the key and "THUD". 

I looked under the hood of the car and noticed oil drops under the thing.  Not a good sign in anybody's book.  I came in, called the mechanic, as my male partner in crime glared at me saying, "Jee-sus H. Christ, NOW WHAT?" (I didn't think it was prudent to bring up the dishwasher then either).

So, the good news is, the dehumidifier will be sort of fixed (buy the purchase of a new one when the check comes), the dishwasher repair folks came and fixed the dishwasher(I finally did tell the other person int he house about the dishwasher), the car goes back to the fix-it shop in the morning, and all will be fine again with the world...except the leather chair in the living room has decided to shed it's outer coating...in a sticky, gummy, and really quite disgusting way...The furniture guy will be calling me back...

Honest to God....I realize all this crap is inconvenient and not things that are really a big deal, but honestly...I've had enough this year, between deaths, sicknesses and all sorts of mechanical breakdowns I'm yelling, "Uncle, Uncle, Uncle!!".