On Dec. 20, our big screen plasma TV started going really buggy, so we called a TV repair service and they came and took it away: Probably back by the day after Christmas, we were told. We never saw it again.
With all of the tactics that repair shops in general use, they stalled week by week until, finally on the 12th of January, they said that the set could not be fixed. The plasma plate display was corrupt and would have to be replaced, which would cost as much as a new set. They then requested another $30 to return the set to us unfixed. We told them to go fuck themselves.
In the interim we had a lovely Christmas. Steve gave me a Blu-Ray disc player (ironic because we had no television with which to enjoy it). We went out and purchased a 19" flatscreen at a very reasonable price, so we weren't denied video fare, but it was like watching a postage stamp.
The first week in January, Steve was fired from his job. The boss was a psychotic on too much medication. Steve had been there for six months and 15 of the 20 staff employees (including the company president) had been fired during his tenure. I was not terribly surprised, since it was just a matter of time. It had nothing to do with how competent or effective Steve was in the job in reality, because the boss was just not in touch with reality. In any case, that was the second big stroke of shitty luck. The third was when Steve's car went in for maintenance and leaky front seals were found on the wheels, which costs $900 to fix, we discovered.
When we received the death sentence on the television, being good consumers, we decided to go out and replace it. This time we got an LCD, which uses much less energy. It also came with a new home theater system. All our components are now Sony, and we have them connected with HDMI cables, so they talk to one another. I have a suspicion they are talking about us. In any case, we now are renting Blu-Ray discs from Netflix and having wonderful high-definition viewing experiences. I'm also getting the Oscar nominees on screener DVDs from work, so we're able to watch those as they come my way.
Last week, the upstairs toilet blocked up, all of a sudden and for no apparent reason. Responsible homeowners, we went out and purchased a plumber's snake and attempted to dislodge the block, but toilets don't seem to be designed to allow the snake to pass through to the sewer pipes. Steve went out and bought some enzyme type of unclogger and we dutifully spent three days dumping this eco-friendly stuff down the loo, but to no avail. Steve asked his friend John, who is familiar with toilet troubles, to come over and assist in the diagnosis and repair of the problem. (Luckily, we have a downstairs half bath, so we weren't without facilities.)
On this last Sunday, I drove my car into work and stopped at the Subway shop just around the corner to pick up lunch before I went into work. When I went back out to the car, it would not start. I could tell it was a dead battery. So I walked over to the office, put my lunch away and called AAA roadside service. After half an hour they arrived with a huge flatbed truck that blocked everyone in the parking lot (and they all complained quite heartily).
I told the fellow I needed a jump start and he insisted on listening to the engine. I attempted to turn it over, whereupon he announced that I needed a jump. He did so and, after 10 minutes of running the engine, I headed into the parking structure at work. I went down every two hours and ran the car for a while, just to keep the battery charged. After work the car started successfully and I was able to make it back home. It's been sitting in the garage since. I rarely use it, since I take the train and subway into work most days, so a new battery is a low priority in my mind.
This week John came over and helped in the ongoing effort to unclog the toilet but was unsuccessful. His opinion was that the toilet was old and calcium deposits were blocking the flow in the toilet itself. So Steve went down to OSH and purchased a new toilet and, handyman that he is, installed the thing himself. The tank was leaking at the bolts.
The next day (Friday) I am normally off work, so we went and got some silicone epoxy and sealed the bolts. The toilet flushed once, then started backing up again. Today, we took the new toilet off and ran the snake directly down the pipe, hit the blockage but it would not budge. Upon pouring a bucket of water in, it backed up again. Our last hope was to get some kickass Drano type cleaner and see if it would do the job. We did so.
Upon returning home, we pulled out the snake to put in the Drano and up came a sock clinging to the end of the snake. Seems it had fallen in during laundry day (the hamper is directly across from the toilet) and no one had noticed.So this sock is pictured here because it presents an icon for the last weeks since I wrote in this blog: smelly and covered with shit and God knows what and disrupting the true and free low of things as they should be.
On the up side, we are now capable of handling any kind of drain blockage that might befall us in the future. And Steve has had numerous projects to distract him from brooding on his employment status.
Actually, he has already had one interview with the Pasadena Humane Society, is registered with a temp-to-hire firm here in town which specializes in accounting, and has had a request from another firm which is looking to add a full-charge bookkeeper. It's an accounting firm with, hopefully, no psychotic bosses or supervisors.
Also on the up side, we are adhering to our New Year's resolution to lose weight. I've dropped 10 pounds and Steve has dropped eight since the first of the year and the diet is becoming easy to manage. We're doing Atkins, and I adapted a recipe for New York cheesecake to make it low carb, and it really is impossible to tell it from the real thing. It helps us in keeping on keeping on.
Another New Year's resolution I made was to learn the program Dreamweaver, which is an authoring program for the Web. I figure if my head is on the block at work any time soon, I'll be ready to hit the workforce, since all the ads I see for designers and art directors require full knowledge of web applications as well as graphics programs. Welcome to the 21st century. Also, I want to be able to design a site to promote myself. And if I do get laid off from work, I get a nice severance package with seven weeks full pay. But I'm not focusing on that, since I'm painfully valuable to the Reporter.
So here's a really long blog entry to keep you occupied and bring you up to date. Sorry the sock is the only picture, but we don't have much else to show you. Who takes pictures of broken objects and frustrating moments?
On the marriage front, our connubial existence is still in limbo with the California Supreme Court weighing a plethora of briefs submitted over the whole Proposition 8 debacle. We understand sometime in April or May is probably when they will hand down their decision on whether the proposition is legal and, if so, whether our marriage (performed before the proposition passed) is binding or not.
Be happy. Keep in touch. I'll try to add to this blog more regularly in the coming year. Oh great; another resolution.
