Did you know that if you google the quote-enclosed phrase “bad things come threes,” you’ll get 17,900 results (as of this morning; later today, it may be 17,901, which is at least divisible by three, so we’ve got that going for us)? And so it seems that I’m not the only soul who, while not being superstitious or clinging to ancient and silly ways of explaining why the universe behaves like it does, still perceives out of the corner of my eye certain patterns that are simultaneously comforting and disquieting.
In our case, #1 was Saturday’s ice storm that wreaked havoc on our 25-year old oak tree. #2 was yesterday’s snapping of the spring on our garage door. And #3 occurred this morning as MLB‘s 5:00 a.m. treadmill workout was derailed when the television in the game room abruptly gave up its phosphorescent ghost.
This is a disaster of epic proportions, as anyone who has endured an hour on a treadmill without the benefit of sensory distraction will attest. The TV isn’t that old, but it was acquired via deep discount at Best Buy, the discount being so deep that it qualified as an impulse purchase, and we just don’t do that sort of thing with electronics. It’s got a nice 20″ flat screen with front panel a/v inputs and it fit snugly into the built-in cabinet. Ironically, this death came only a couple of weeks after I installed a UPS to protect it and the other a/v equipment from Midland’s notoriously jicky electric current. There’s bound to be yet another law to explain that, something along the lines of “no good deed goes unpunished.”
NEWSFLASH! I was just about to smash the TV with an eight pound sledge when I had a brainstorm and plugged it into a different electrical outlet; it works fine. I should be happy, I suppose, except for two things. I really like that sledge. And, #3 is still out there.
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So…#3 was the fact that the outlet blew? (Think positive! 😉 ) Or maybe #3 is that you went ahead and smashed the tv anyway? I was worried you were going to tell us about a freak treadmill accident that left YLB in the ER. So things can always be worse.
And just to make life more interesting, bad things for me tend to come in 5s. Whee!
That’s too bad about your TV still working, er I mean, outlet not working.
I’m with Beth – Poor her though for having to walk without entertainment – I’m not sure I could be that motivated hehe.
Beth, could it be that you are also subject to the “bad things in threes” law, but you don’t realize it until fifteen bad things have happened? Anyway, I don’t define a thing as “bad” until it exceeds $100 in out-of-pocket expense. Everything else is just, well, life.
Jim, we only use it on Sundays to watch PBS. Really. And even then, we don’t enjoy it. And we can stop any time we want.
Rachel, I can’t remember the last time she actually walked on that treadmill. She runs for an hour at a time!
Running for an hour will do that. My doctor told me, “Never, never run on the treadmill…it’s bad for the TV.” 😉
I think you only need to worry about “the other shoe,” not a third. But maybe that’s just me. 😉
BTW, I just googled that, and I only got 17,500 results. What happened to the other 401 bad things?
Well, I knew that China censored Google results. I didn’t realize that Kansas was doing the same thing. 😉
Someone in my house would have hot-footed it to Best Buy and purchased a new 42″ flat screen…and had it custom mounted on the wall…
or not.
Any excuse will do, right?