Under siege!

Do you ever feel like a little black rain cloud is following you around?
Having a professional musician as the bread winner in the family means that summers are slim around here. Students drop off for summer vacation, and the University rarely has a summer school enrollment for harpsichord 101. Every thing has to fall right into place to make it work. Well, the short story version is that things have not been in place. Not at all...


On our blissful drive back from the beach we noticed our speedometer seemed to be reading high. Maybe 20 mph high. Now, it is stuck on 120 mph all the time. I have no idea how fast I am going unless someone is driving close by. Cost for a new instrument panel??? $600

Two weeks ago, our dryer broke in the middle of two loads of towels. I had moldy towels for a week until my "I can fix anything" dad came over and saved us from buying a new dryer by rigging up a small fix. The real part would have to be ordered. If he weren't around...we'd be screwed. Our dryer is only 3 years old.

The day after, our garage door broke. (I'm not kidding about this). Dad came over and changed a small part and it was working again. But by this point I was asking the Duke what could possibly go wrong next? I should not have asked. Two kids got a nasty throat virus with fevers as high as 104F. It was a long miserable weekend...but I had clean towels...

...until the rigged part died and the dryer stopped working again. Thank goodness above mentioned part was in! Dryer worked again....things were good. I had no idea how fast I was driving, but life was good.

Then the Duke's car died. The alternator was bad. Replacement cost: $300. Dad fixed the car. Car ran well. I kept thinking this was over. I have no idea how fast I am going, but at least D's car is running again.

But tonight in the middle of driving to work the car died again....WITH it's new alternator. And when the D came inside he said the garage motor was sounding "funny" again.

I swear I feel like our last month has been right out of some sitcom...or a cartoon with a little black cloud over my house that follows me around. I'm ready for the storm to blow on through. Let's see a little bit of sun!