Bad Luck happens in 3's?

I've always been a glass is half full kind of gal, but this past 6 weeks is really trying my patience. Seems like there is one catastrophe after another around here these days.

First it was a washcloth that got jammed into the pump of the washing machine. It took the repair man exactly 27 minutes (that included the time to prepare the bill) to charge me $180.

Then we awoke several mornings to find our house a frigid 59F. Yup - that's cold folks! Called the furnace man only to find out that we've got serious problems and that in all likelyhood, we should replace our furnace and some of the main ductwork to boot. Our house is only 7 years old! YIKES.

Next I had a wiper blade come flying off my van in the middle of a snow storm. Had to go back and search through the snow to find the darn thing in a snowbank. Took that back and got a new one, only to have it fall off three days later in the middle of a rainstorm, while passing a transport on the 401, at 10pm. Needless to say, I didn't go back to retrieve that one and I didn't replace it with the same model. (don't buy Canadian Tire Reflex wipers)

I pulled over to take the wiper blade off the back of the van so that I could at least drive home, and somehow managed to loosen a few wires on the arm. When I put the blade back on, I discovered that the wiper no longer worked, which required another service call and $150.

The next day, Joel removed the remaining wiper blade off my van so that he could return it and inform Canadian Tire of the defect in their wiper blades. He returned with new wipers, but the wrong adaptors to fit them onto the arm. So when the neighbour lady called to ask for a ride to the hospital (she had a "chopping wood" type accident that was gruesome), I had to drive my wiperless van to another neighbours to borrow a car to drive the first neighbour into town. Oh, and by the time we finished at the hospital - a snow storm had started.


Next StarChoice Satellite TV called to ask for our business back (from Bell Expressvu) with a SWEET deal. The deal turned sour when the first installer spent three hours wandering in and out of our house mumbling something about the wiring and needing a $99 multi-switch (which he did not have). A resulting 90 minute call to order said switch results in a discovery that the switch won't even work and the installer was just being lazy (he'd already left). The second installer arrived 10 days later to "fix" the job of the first, drove me insane with complaining about this, that and the other part of his job, and then told me that he intended to drill big holes through drywall and didn't bring a fish with him to feed the wires. I kicked him out. Then I spent 2 hours on the phone with Bell - pleading for my satellite back. Then I spent 2 days on the phone with StarChoice getting them to eliminate the $200 deactivation fee (because I had half of our TV's working, they considered the install as success) and reverse the requirement for 30 days notice. In the end I was successful, but probably at the cost of losing years off my life.

Sigh . . . my internet Satellite dish developed "issues". Four days on the phone with Technical Services and diagnosis was that the dish needed to be repointed. Finally a service guy arrived (who was AMAZING). While he did an amazing job of fixing my satellite dish, he managed to also bring bad news. The less expensive and faster "wireless" internet access which was scheduled to arrive in our area last September is no longer coming - at all. I signed a 2 year contract with this company based on this service arriving. Now I'm stuck.

The rear wiper blade on the back of my van quit again 2 weeks after the "fixing" of the lines. I'm taking it in today.

Babysitter sold her house and will not be available after April (though I am thrilled for them, sucks for me).

I think I'll stop here. On a glass half full note - kids are good, we're doing fine and the whole family is headed to Florida in 2 days. If we are all still speaking to each other after 2.5 days of driving, we are looking forward to some fun in the sun. And I'm hoping that a change in venue will allow us to reverse our bad luck by the time we return home. Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket before we leave!