OK. Here's what's up

Everything I touch seems to turn to shit if it's in my house and costs a buttload of money.

Last week not only did the dryer die, but we once again had some minor flooding with a load of laundry. I realized in retrospect that had the timing worked out we would have been safe for years. But only if the washer flooded at the same time the dryer caught fire. So that was one expense.

The next major fiasco was that on Friday last it was hot. Or at least hot to me in my 1969 ranch house which is not designed to stay cool. Unless it's cold out. Then being cool is what it does best. But I want to be warm.

I digress.

It was hottish (like in the 80s) which meant the house was hottish which meant that I wanted to turn on the AC at least for an hour or two to cool down. So we did.

But nothing happened really. It just got hotter and hotter in the house. The fan blew but it wasn't getting cooler. So Ricardo cleaned the filter of the AC and put it back in. It was fairly nasty so we hoped it would work the next day.

But it didn't. So I wanted to call the AC guys. "You can't do that! If they come on a Saturday it'll be over time!" So I called to find out how much more and when I learned it was only $35 more I had the guy come.

"Well your problem is you don't have one drop of refrigerant in that system," he informed us.
"But if I was you, I wouldn't put any in either. That's a 22 year old system you got there. And the refrigerant is about $100 a pound. You need at least 10 pounds and that's if I can find the leak."

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?

And then he informed us that the refrigerant is so expensive because it's going to be illegal to sell new units that take that kind. It's damaging to the ozone. And that's why it's expensive too.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?

One hour later we were scheduling the installation of a new 3 ton unit for inside and outside. Ouch!

It was the single most expensive 36 hours I've ever had where I did not buy a house, a car, or give birth to a extremely premature infant.

But there was reason to hope. Because on Monday our coffee maker arrived in the mail. I was so excited that I started to kind of skip as I got closer to the box. Which was embarrassing for my son to witness, his mother doing a jig over a coffee maker. But hey, he embarrassed me plenty as a screaming baby. It's payback time now.

We've been without an espresso maker since the middle of February when ours died and when, because it was under warranty, we sent it to Maryland to be repaired. But they didn't do it. And they didn't do it. After 1 month we called them. They hadn't gotten to it. After 6 weeks, Ricardo got hostile with Krups. They agreed to send us a new one.

But they didn't. They sent a reconditioned one. And Monday night, I excitedly unpacked it and set it up, running water through it and salivating at the thought of my fresh latte Tuesday morning.

I'm sure you know where this is headed by now.

It didn't work. And Krups? Yeah, they don't do refunds.

So right now I am sweating outside The Kid's piano teacher's house. It's 89 degrees according to the car's thermometer. I have 12 months to pay off the air conditioner, 18 months to pay off the new washer and dryer, and no coffee maker. My son had to wear a bathing suit (it looks like shorts) to school today because he had no clean underwear and when I get home the house will easily be 85 degrees inside. If I am lucky it will cool down by 1 am. Which is fine, because I'm not working tomorrow. After all, I have to wait at the house for the Washer and Dryer and the AC guys.