Stuff is breaking around me

So on Monday, I woke up, padded to the kitchen, let the dog out, and stared at the backyard. Hmm. Something about the car parked in the back alley didn't look right. An angle of difference. I took a closer look. The left front tire was nearly flat. Slow leak? I rushed to the nearest gas station, pumped the tire up to 44 psi and rushed back before my wife had to leave for a morning seminar. By afternoon the bathtub faucet knob broke for the third time. My daughter's wireless Internet card no longer connects to the router. I stubbed my small toe the night before and it hurts, especially with shoes on. And the borough forgot to remind us to pay for a new annual parking sticker.

These things, I have found, come in waves or bunches, and they never come at a convenient time.

I was just getting into last minute panic mode because the semester is on the verge of launching, and then this stuff falls apart all around us: I'm fidgeting, waiting for sh*t to break, trying not to draw mental conclusions.

Tuesday became a fixit day: bathtub knob is ON and WORKS. Tire is holding onto its air. Next up...oil change! I ran ethernet cable to my daughter's computer, plugged an ethernet card in there and removed the wireless card. I delicately drove nails in the wood trim to keep the cable tidy. Then I fixed her mail program. I also got a new parking sticker for the Saturn. I'm filling out benefit forms, trying to remember where I left my social security card, where I wrote down my daughter's SSN. I cleaned some old clothes from my closet. And I fixed my hair -- got a haircut. And, determined to exert some manly control over my curly locks, I discussed sundry products with the hairdresser: mousse, gel, pastes, and pomades.

Just another day in paradise.