Wednesday, September 12, 2012

it’s only money



Tommy Steele from the 1950s

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The man who fixes our whitegoods finally said the dishwasher wasn’t worth fixing again. We got a new dishwasher.

The second hinge on the washing machine lid finally broke. No matter, sometimes it takes a little juggling, but it does eventually lock and allow the spin cycle to kick in.

One of the skylights developed a leak during one of Melbourne’s particularly stormy storms. The Other climbed up on to the roof and wrapped it in bubble wrap. Very resourceful for a 64 year old woman, I reckon. 
We don’t want to crack open a new tube of silicon just for that, we’ll wait til my cuz comes to put two new brackets on the guttering. And to put some cement sheets over the upstairs decking to keep the downstairs deck dry when it rains.

The microwave died. That was when we realised just how much we used it. Aunty replaced that after two days, because she couldn’t stand the frustration any longer.

The X Trail started jumping out of 5th gear at random intervals. There are millions of Xtrails on the road, but until this happened we did not discover that "everybody knows" this problem is very common. 
While Mr Motor Man had the X Trail in pieces he asked The Other if she was planning to keep it.
“Yes”, she said, “my next vehicle will be battery powered, have three wheels, and have a little orange flag on the back.”
“Well”, said Mr Motor Man, “you could probably get another 20,000 kms out of the clutch plate, but it would be much cheaper to replace it while everything is already dismantled.”
It’s hard to know what was worse, the $3,000 bill, or being without a second car for two weeks.

My super duper PC Delores died. No matter, the old lap top still works.

Our electric blanket died. Well, you can’t let poor defenceless little dogs freeze, can you? They’ve just had a short back and sides in anticipation of the grass seed season, and they are feeling the cold.

Now the little man who used to live in the fridge has done a moonlight flit. Oh well, no biggie.

But if it’s true that “things happen in threes”, this means three annoying things are followed closely by another three, and then another three, and…


10 comments:

  1. That sucks. Are you cursed or something?

    Well, probably.

    It is the rule of three. Or three++++

    I hate when things break; especially when they're important to day to day life.

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    1. Knowing you Dina, you probably think it's not so much a curse as "car-ma"?

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  2. Glad to hear MY life isn't the only one that rolls like that!

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    1. MT, if you are glad then a positive has come from a negative, which gladdens me. Thanks!

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  3. Was it last year or the year before? I can't recall now, but we had a period where absolutely everything broke down. Given my sister's g/f not long ago bought a new X Trail, I wonder if she knows about the fifth gear problem.

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    1. One expects "normal" wear and tear, but sometimes normal is a bit much.

      The Other found the Internet awash with suggestions about how people avoided replacing the entire gearbox.
      I suspect if TO had simply stopped using overdrive and/or had the car seen to earlier there would have been less expensive problems. Unfortunately this all started around the time TO's mum was rushed to hospital in Albury.

      Your sis-in-law might be safe. Sometimes these problems emerge and are addressed before the next model starts rolling out a factory door. I had a Camira that just went and went and went, but people would sneer. The second run-out was fine but by then it was too late and the reputation of the car was irredeemable.

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  4. Your run of bad luck should be over unless your house falls down on top of ya then i'd say you've upset a supernatural being in your universe.

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    1. Wash your mouth out, Windsmoke! The problem is not that we don't want to fix things, the problem is finding someone trustworthy to do the fixing.
      At least TO has been using the same mechanic for about 25 years, and he has passed up a dozen opportunities to rip us off.

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  5. Ha! I just want to know what brand of bubble wrap TO used!!!! It's clearly far more durable than the other objects of civilisation ... and much more fun than many other forms of entertainment. Or is it just me that finds it usefully soporific to sit quietly and pop those bubbles one by one?!

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    1. Occupational therapists the world over supply clients with bubble wrap. Dare I suggest that bubble busting is a POPular pastime?

      TO's botty-pops - "Oh, do excuse me: I have a condition" can be fairly soporific. You wouldn't believe the number of canaries we go through in a week.

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