When Things Go Wrong

I haven’t written lately because things haven’t been working out really well. Of course it could always be worse, but I was hoping not to go on a rant. It seems, however, that I have some regular readers, who have asked me “how it’s going?”

In reality, I have had a wonderful (although too short) summer. But in the last week or so, one of the people who is closest to me had a family member die, and then her car started on fire the day she returned from the (out-of-town) funeral.

In my own little part of the world, my car needs brakes, my refrigerator decided to stop being cold and I find that money is short and my summer is all but over.

Why do things break? Planned obsolescence keeps consumers buying. I can’t afford to buy right now, so I am attempting to fix some things. My friend Mike looked at my refrigerator… had it pulled apart and opened it up actually… and nothing seems wrong with it. In fact, this morning it started working again. Will it keep working? I don’t know, but my food is temporarily at my parents’ house and I need it back (… getting hungry…).

I have two small black & white televisions that I like because I can move them where I need them. One is in my bedroom, and it kept getting “snowy” after it was on for awhile. I took it apart, and though it works better I don’t think it is really fixed. I cleaned it up inside though. My other, smaller set wouldn’t tune in anymore and I took it apart and now (for the moment) it seems to work again.

Perhaps temporarily, I have undermined the idea of planned obsolescence. Perhaps I haven’t. I just know that between my two jobs, I don’t make enough money not to try to fix things. I’m really not that good at it. My brother and dad are really good at fixing things, but I’m really not. Although I have noticed that when measured against the entire population, I’m not too bad at it actually.