Opposition in All Things

Well, it's been a rough week, finishing up with a grand finale. One week ago Alex sliced open his foot on a piece of glass while wading barefoot in a small stream. (It's finally healed shut). Then the springs on the garage door went out, making the door unable to open and close. Derek planned to repair it himself, but after Cyndie had three parts places warn against amateurs fixing it, and being in danger of a screw driver through the head, we did end up having someone repair that.

After that the faucet sprung a leak, and Derek had to replace the core valve (or something like that). Then the disposal died and had to be replaced, by thank goodness, my ever so handy man, Derek. Home Depot is getting rich off the Dobsons this week. The repair somehow backed up the dishwasher, leaving a frazzled trying to clean Cyndie, frustrated. Once again Derek came to the rescue.

On Wednesday I was frantically running errands when I got a call from Derek, who had also been getting travelers checks at the bank during his lunch hour. "My car just died. I was luckily close to the mechanics, but can you come pick me up, and take me back to work." The good news, they were able to fix it the same day, the bad news, the new alternator was several hundred dollars. Did anyone notice we just took out thousands of dollars in traveller checks today. Could we have the alternator go out on another day?!

Then the washing machine had been leaking. At dinner last night Derek said, "Considering the way our luck is going, if we don't get a new washer it will probably blow, and flood the basement while we're gone, of course leaving thousands of dollars in sheetrock damage." So as a preemptive strike we went out last night and bought a new washing machine. Well, being the day before we leave for China, it was in pretty high demand, but kept moving during the spin cycle. Being the dutiful husband, though worn out and getting poorer with each repair, he ran to Home Depot to get the needed rubber feet, which of course were too tall. He was using a utility knife (the kind with razor blades) to cut them to size. This was at 5:00 p.m. tonight. Unfortunately the razor slipped and sliced right through the better part of his finger. So, with only a couple hundred of things to do to get ready to leave for China tomorrow we went to get stitches instead. Six. The shots all around the finger, and into the finger tip were the worst!!!

After the stitches, we needed to get a prescription. It was 6:15. Costco Pharmacy had just closed. We drove to Target. Closed. We drove to Walgrens, all their computer had gone down, so they were closed. We got to Walmart at 6:50 after they had pulled down their metal door where they take in prescriptions. I went and begged the girl, telling her I was leaving for China tomorrow, there wasn't another pharmacy open, and my husband had just received stitches (I pointed to his hand) he needed drugs, and he needed them tonight! She firmly, and tiredly said, "No!" I persisted, and finally a very grumpy pharmacist at the back said, "FINE! just fill her prescription". Thank you for your grumpy, reluctant but none-the-less kind act of filling Derek's prescription.

It's now after midnight. That means the week is over and we leave today! I sure hope our luck changes for the better.