2024, books, Health, home, Music, Uncategorized

Big Breakdown

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During the last two months we have had an unusual number of mechanical failures. The CV joint on my van was leaking, requiring a new front axle. Husband needed new tires on his truck. The kitchen faucet broke, and was replaced. Our big kitchen mixer broke down and was replaced just before Christmas baking started. Last week my blow dryer gave up. I had to go to work on the coldest day of the year with wet hair. It was an expensive couple of months.

Yesterday I felt quite broken down. Monday was my annual checkup. The good news is that I am the picture of health. The bad news was getting both a Covid shot and a flu shot at the appointment. I woke up Tuesday morning feeling as though I had been hit by a truck. I stayed home from work. I felt better as the day progressed. At least that is over for another year.

What are your favorite disaster songs, poems, stories, and movies? Have you had your shots?

48 thoughts on “Big Breakdown”

  2. I like “The Towering Inferno” for a disaster movie. Probably won’t play well today, post 9/11, but it had a great cast and a believable premise.

    “The Poseidon Adventure” “Titanic” “Gravity” “Apollo 13.”

    “Mayday” by Nelson DeMille is one of my fave disaster novels.

    And of course, the minute before I’ve pressed “send” to officially publish each of my novels, deep in the darkest corner of my mind, I expected each to be a disaster novel. 🙂

    Chris in Owatonna

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  5. all your stuff is familiar. i love my mechanic. my cv joint was leaking i was told and he said so what? the worst case scenario is that you have to replace the axel. let it leak! it can go 3 or 4 years easily with no consequences. i found a tore place that will install 4 tires for $250. I saw the Kohler kitchen faucet that I would use if I needed to replace my kitchen faucet on sale in Costco last week, but I have been taught how to fix a leaky faucet by replacing the little rubber things that go inside of kitchen faucets they are fairly simple mechanism
    I am so disappointed in the mixer that I spent a bunch of money on however, many years ago it was because shortly after I bought it the go button stopped working correctly and it doesn’t work doesn’t work doesn’t work and then all of a sudden goes 1,000,000 miles an hour you got it back down because I get to a bunch of those trade shows. I got to talk to the company guy and he said that I should pursue it with corporate because that’s the one item that they care about most and have a huge image issue to deal with and they won’t let me sit with my unhappy mixer however, when I talk to their customer service is a different story so I end up with my mixture not working not working not working and then going 1,000,000 miles an hour backing down as part of the equation to doing all of my mixer work my hairdryer story comes from the Chicago athletic club when I was staying there for a trade show 30 years ago and it’s kind of a beautiful old building and the hotel rooms are classic Chicago hotel rooms and I’m sure I’ve told the story before I would turn my hairdryer on and blow out all the electrical power on the floor and about the third or fourth morning that I did that I realized that it was me and everybody was coming out of their room pissed because at 7:15 every day I would blow all the lights on the floor out with my hairdryer. I have no idea what the deal was, but that’s my recall on hair dryer. I haven’t used the hairdryer for probably the last 30 years so that’s all the reference I’ve got for that, but it still makes me smile and remember the Chicago athletic club.

    my body does not get the good reviews that yours gets as a matter of fact, I’m thinking more of Clyde and how we bitched about having to go to all the doctors appointments all the time and I’m kind of to that point I’ve got broken leg therapy and can’t bite hand therapy and now I’m having to get injections in my foot because that’s locking up on me and my schedule is way too full of Dr stuff because I’ve got to go back in and see people on my screwed up heart and checking prostate cancer that I dealt with and I broke another rib this week so my bone density doctor is gonna get a phone call so yeah life is different and the challenge today is finding the time I always smile and say that retirement is that time of life when you wake up at 6 o’clock in the morning and by 10 o’clock your four hours behind

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    2. I agree about the CV joint, but because we travel so far to see our son in SD, I didn’t want anything to happen on the highway in the middle of nowhere.

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    3. My goodness, tim… I hope some of those issues get resolved quickly!

      I owned the world’s worst car, a 1984 Renault Encore. That thing was nothing but problems. Morgan and I went out to Glacier in ‘88 or ‘89 and we drove that car. About halfway across South Dakota, I started hearing something clunking in the front end when I turned the wheel. I ended up stopping in Montana because it was clunking and slamming so bad that the steering wheel was jerking in my hands. I didn’t want to drive on the mountain roads with the CV joints going out, so I had to get it fixed. Morgan wasn’t too happy about it but It was better than driving on Going to the Sun highway with the CV joints hanging by a thread. It was expensive.

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  7. I remember Airport and Poseidon Adventure in the 70s, but I don’t often read or watch most of the standard disaster stuff.
    That said, I did see Titanic. Oppenheimer felt like sort of a disaster movie.

    And I frequently read novels that are about mini-disasters in people’s lives. I started to read Camus’ The Plague during Covid, didn’t make it to the end tho’.

    I have had my Covid shot, probably not getting the flu one.

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  8. Rise and Succumb to disaster , Baboons,

    Renee, I have had a similar Autumn. The tree damaged in the State Fair storm is mostly down, but the crane needed to take the trunk of the tree out is coming next Thursday. Yes, a crane. $$$. The new washer and dryer that was ordered October 1 will finally be delivered Wednesday. Meanwhile, I pray over the squeaking and dying old washer with every load I launder. Today is new tires on the Escape. We did get the new dishwasher 2 weeks ago and it works well. Hallelujah! Like you have experienced Renee, it has been an expensive stretch.

    I don’t watch disaster movies. My life has provided enough disaster and so I do not find it entertaining.

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      1. The above comment (assuming it’s going to be where I intended it to be) was in response to Renee’s comment about not wanting to risk getting stranded in the middle of nowhere.

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  9. Yes, forgot to give personal disaster report – this fall we’ve had a cluster of stuff, too: the plumber out to replace kitchen faucet, and parts in the toilet tank. Garage door folks have been here twice; will install a new door as soon as it comes in. Prius will be in the shop Monday to get new wheel bearings. Hope that’s it for now.

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  12. I’m reading a book for my other book club right now and it definitely qualifies! It’s a road trip story and it is just one disaster after another. To the point where I’m not enjoying it anymore and really only finishing it because it’s a book club book. It’s a fairly well known and popular book right now, so I’m not mentioning the title.

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    1. Oh! One of my favorites! Wish I’d have remembered that!
      I think of the Mary Ellen Carter, but that’s a redemption story more than disaster story.
      I can never get my brain and thoughts in the right place to answer these questions…

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  15. I’m with those who aren’t into disaster movies or stories. They make me really upset or very sad. I’ve lost sleep over them. I know, I know, it’s only a movie, but they upset me. And, I’ve had my own disasters, so I don’t need to absorb all the drama of the disasters in stories.

    The little music group I play with, Eclectic Strummers, did our holiday concert today. It went well. Lots of people I know came, so it was fun. I always think about what a disaster it could turn out to be, and I am filled with dread. But it went really well, and now I’m happy that it’s behind us. Next potential disaster is next week at a local care home when a few of us will repeat the holiday concert.

    Yes, I’ve gotten my covid vaccine and my flu vaccine together for the past couple of years. I never have any ill effects. In 2021, I got a Pneumovax, a Shingrix, and a covid vaccine all together. I was knocked down for a week from that. When you really feel bad after getting vaccinated, you can be assured that it is kicking your immune system into overdrive – it’s working.

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  16. Of all the shots I’ve had in the past few years (truly, if there is a shot that will keep me from getting something [or getting a lesser version of said thing], lay it on me), I’ve had one very sore arm and another time I felt pretty run over for an afternoon but that’s it. All better than the alternatives. When I had covid last February, I did not have one single solitary symptom. (I only tested because a friend that I had been at a party with over the weekend texted a bunch of us that she was fairly ill. I was about to go the Institute of Arts, so tested on a whim as a good doobie.)

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    1. Deep Impact (although I haven’t seen that) but you’ve reminded me about Don’t Look Up, which I enjoyed very much. Definitely in the disaster category!

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  20. I got the COVID shot in September and the flu shot in October. I don’t get two shots at the same time, because if I feel lousy afterwards I want to know which one was the culprit.

    No reaction to either shot this year.

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  22. And although it’s not technically a disaster movie, YA and I did secure some tickets for Saturday morning to see Wicked at the Riverview.

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