When It Rains It Pours

Well, I am just getting all kinds of good news this weekend! Not only was I invited to become a Hero Arts Hostess, my contract at work was renewed for another quarter. Yaaaaaay!!!!!!

The second good news is that the appliance repair guy came today and fixed our oven. And it only cost $50! $25 for coming out to the house and $25 for shoving some sort of plug or unit back into the stove's guts (somehow, it had come loose and wriggled out). The paperwork took longer than the repair, actually.

Which is mildly annoying because we've been without an oven since Thanksgiving. Yep. Four months without baked or broiled food because this Thing came loose in the back. Four months that I kept saying to Spouse, "Can't you get online and at least try to figure out what's the problem?" Which turned into three months of procrastination.  

Yes, so it's all my fault, you see, because I didn't take the steps necessary to solve the problem. (READ: If I don't do it, nobody does it.) What IS it with men and picking up the phone? Does anybody else notice that men seem to be afraid of the phone? I know Spouse is. You ask that man to call and order a pizza, and his eyes roll into the back of his head as the color drains from his face.

I finally picked up the phone yesterday, called, and left a message to please come fix our oven. And they did.

So why didn't I do this earlier? you might ask.

I've had a lot on my mind, that's why!

I've been mastering Excel, for goodness sake. And then, just when I was getting really good at it, they upgraded my company computer to Windows Let's Try Again. I mean, I had crazy-mad Skills, people!  And now I'm all crazy-mad Skill-less because they changed all the buttons!

THAT was more than a little annoying, let me tell you.

And then, as if that wasn't enough to contend with, I had to deal with reorienting myself to a Mac computer for my personal usage. I never mentioned it before, but my PC was so old it had a near fatal aneurysm one night when I asked it to please close Word and open Foxfire simultaneously. But what can you expect? It only had a paltry 512 MB of RAM and 31 GB of hard drive. I'm surprised the thing could even boot up.

And here I was demanding it make bricks without straw! (Sadly, no Moses software showed up to lead it out of my cruel bondage. Frankly I think it collapsed because it had lost the will to live. I know I had by that point.)

And then there was the Palm Pilot crises. For seven years my Palm was my link to sanity. And then, one day, about two years ago, it just stopped functioning. It expired from Sudden Death Syndrome. (Seriously, that's what they called it! It has something to do with the battery and it's a totally avoidable problem on the manufacturer's side, but they just can't be bothered.) Luckily, there is this guy on eBay who will fix that little problem permanently for $40 + postage.

And he did! But then, about a year ago, I noticed that the Palm's contact surface was starting to ignore my stylus. First it was misinterpreting my graffiti, but then it wouldn't let me scroll up or down. Things got worse as the days passed. And me? Well, I was a mess. I was totally and completely addicted to my Palm Pilot. I didn't even know my own address because I was so used to just looking it up in my Palm.

I think I was in denial because I refused to consider a future without it. I finally went to the store to get a replacement and received horrible news. Nobody was really carrying them anymore because the cellphones were driving them out of business (that and they were really shoddy when compared to the quality of any number of cell phones). But if I were so insane as to want to purchase another one, I could shell out an obscene amount of cash online.

Although I freely admit that my sanity is often in question, (and rightfully so) I am rather selective about when and where I'm going to depart from reality.

The same can be said about my relationship with money.

Ultimately, I decided to go in a different direction entirely and purchased an iPhone because (1) my AT&T contract was coming to an end; (2) I hated my current phone because you could never hear the stinking ringer; (3) they would sell me an iPhone for half the price as part of a contract promotion; (4) it would do everything my Palm did - and more, they assured me; and (5) instead of having two pieces of overpriced technology waiting to fall out of my purse and shatter on the floor below, I could reduce it to one!

Oh, and then there's the unlimited Internet, GPS, and iPod features - three things I am now totally addicted to and Lord-help-us-if-we-are-suddenly-stripped-of-our-technology-because-I-am-just-going-to-lay-down-and-die-like-a-dog-in-the-street-without-it!

And what all of this means is that learning to work the iPhone took up a certain number of brain cells that I could have used somewhere else, you know?

And let's not forget the whole digital camera experience and the making of my first demonstration video (that only took, like, 107 hours of my life that I'LL NEVER GET BACK).

So I don't think it was unreasonable to expect Spouse to deal with the oven. Except for that whole Phone Phobia thing, it should have been a pretty straightforward task.

But let us not dwell on the past!

The last great thing that happened came at the hand of Dawn Turley, a gifted stamper who just honored me with the Lemonade Stand Award for being "a blogger that shows great attitude and gratitude"!

And I will fill in the details and my nominees tomorrow! But let me say, Thank you, Dawn" right here and now! I appreciate your interest and support! And I love the timing of the thing. This has been a terrific weekend!

Comments

[Paula]

Deborah I love your take on the "fair" sex. My spouse is exactly the same, drives me insane some days!!! So I know where you are coming from. Btw I just nominated you for that extact same award :-D. Hope you don't mind, but great minds think alike.....we wont continue the rest of that quote.

[Andi Sexton (rrlscrapgal)]

Oh, Spouses!!!!! Mine also can not pick up a phone..

Congrats on all things going wonderfully well!!!!!

[donna mikasa]

First of all, big hugs, fellow hosti, (and I do love that pledge!!) and yes, my hubby has phoneophobia, too!! Cannot even phone in his Rx to an automated service at the drug store!! I HAVE to do it, to keep him alive, so that he can go to work, so I can stay home and stamp.....So we're even!

[Dawn T]

I just about wet my pants laughing... guys are so funny about things at times... I must admit I always have to ring the repairman when something goes wrong or it never would be done.

Also thanks for your kind words... I see Paula and I are both keen followers of yours and yes you deserve an award as you are such a nice person

Cheers
Dawn:-)

[elana k]

Sounds like you've been busy! But it is great to hear such good news.

Mine husband does exactly the same thing--why ARE men such phone-a-phobes??? :)

[Kelly Booth]

Lots of good things happening....Love your Humor Deborah....
My Hubby LOVES to talk on the phone??? Definitely not the norm.