Brutal. Frustrating. Exasperating - Looking back on it, the last two months were actually quite comical. So here goes.

In the middle of July, my son's Dell computer caught a cold, I mean a virus, a really bad one. I tried all sorts of intermediate steps to keep the system from completely crashing. Updated, upgraded the anti-virus which couldn't quite get rid of the attackers. Added spy ware software to diagnosis some other attackers and then tried to remove certain files to keep the computer from crashing. After 5 hours of work, things seemed to be getting better.

But I was approaching uncharted waters for me. You see, I am pretty good at fixing things but somethings are beyond me and well. At this point, I called my friend Neil who knows this computer stuff inside and out. He said, " Sounds like you are on the right track but if you remove to many attacked files, you've got to be careful. Just try this one more thing and then reboot." So I did as Neil instructed, and tried to reboot. As the computer was rebooting, the screen said something like, shut down the system before your C drive is totally destroyed.

Unfortunately, I was a little late at shutting down. The computer was fried. Oh well, I thought. It's the middle of summer and I'm sick of my son staring at this screen. I'll fix it later. And I didn't have the heart to call Neil and tell him the news.

My son was really disappointed. I wasn't. Maybe just a little upset that I'd just spent 10 hours trying to salvage the system. A lot of work with disasterous results. So I said, "Son, it's a nice day outside. Why don't you mow the lawn? We are going to have a party this weekend. Might as well get to it now."

So CJ heads to the garage, pulls out the lawnmower and starts it up. No problems there I thought. About 20 minutes later, CJ comes in the house. "Dad, I can't get the lawnmower restarted. Can you help me ?", CJ said. I think nothing of it, CJ often has a hard time getting the lawnmower restarted. His arms aren't quite long enough yet to start the mower at times.

Our Toro 21" mower has been very reliable for 14 years. Only been in the shop one time. Giving it everything I've got, I pull the cord 10 times. Can't get it started. This time I'm thinking, something isn't right here. We let the lawnmower cool off and tried to start it again. No luck. Or I should say, Bad Luck.

CJ and I take the mower down to the shop to get it checked out. The owner/operator of the lawn mower repair place takes a look at the mower and says, "We can't get to it for 3 weeks." I'm thinking, " I could probably fix this thing in 2 minutes if I new what he knew." After some haggling, he says he'll give us a call in 2-3 weeks.

So far it hadn't been a very good day but what else could go wrong. CJ and I head home for a late afternoon snack. As we enter the kitchen, I notice water all over the floor and the puddle is getting bigger. What the heck is going on?

We pull the refrigerator out from the wall and there is water everywhere. So we turn the water off. It is late saturday afternoon, but at least this time I have the right man for the job. I call my friend Rich who sold me the refrigerator and tell him it's an emergency. Get over hear right away.

Rich responds, "Well Carl, your refrigerator is working? Right. So what's the emergency? It's late saturday afternoon and my repair men have been running late all day." I responded cooly and calmly(not really), "Rich but the ice maker won't be working and it's the middle of the summer and you're coming to our party next week. Right? And if you knew the type of day I have had, you would definitely send someone over here right now.." Rich reluctantly says, he will squeeze us in at the end of the day.

At eight o'clock that evening, the repair man shows up at our door. He does hie troubleshooting and announces that he needs to get a valve from the truck. He returns and 15 mintes later figures out that the universal valves do not work on the GE refrigerator. He'll have to order the part. Probably will take 2-3 weeks to get the part. I'm thinking, 3-2 weeks, everything is taking 2-3 weeks today. This is absolutley ridiculous.

Can't anybody make anything half decent these days? It seems like everything is breaking. So I head for the family room. Nestle in to my favorite Lazy Boy recliner. Turn on the Sony TV(that I bought from Rich) and call it a day. To be continued-