and not one of them was an April Fools jokes, which makes it a bit worse. 

The wind has blown here for the past four days, without ceasing, at about 183 billion miles per hour.  I’m not exaggerating.   Not one tiny bit.   Animals and small children have been blown away from their families.  We watched a soccer game Tuesday night where the players — high school kids – couldn’t get the ball across the half-court line due to how hard it was blowing.   My friend Jim  took his daughter out to fly kites the other day and it was too windy.  Too windy to fly kites.  What on earth is THAT about??  Regardless, the wind is blowing so hard today that it blew a piece of siding off our house.  Which blew into our bedroom/slash/den window while I was sitting in that room and about caused me to have a heart attack.  And not just any piece, but a piece on the very tippy-top part of the two-story part of the house that we will never in a million years be able to reach with a ladder.   So either we’ll have to pay someone with a ladder to come to our house to nail the siding back up, or we’ll leave the siding off and show the wood underneath, continuing in our quest to be the Beverly Hillbillies of the neighborhood.

Without going into too many personal details (again, see:  lives in small town and someone will know what/who I’m talking about) I shortchanged myself $50 in a financial transaction today.  Which is not the end of the world, but its an ongoing financial transaction, which translates to $600 a year.  Which is frustrating and annoying and embarrassing.  I absolutely do not think the other person realized it, which makes it worse, because they are not going to try and rectify it.  It will be up to me to either take the loss, or call to fix it and undergo the embarrassment of admitting my mistake and asking someone for more money.  That they rightfully owe me.  BUT STILL.  And while the big-girl-panties part of me knows I should just fix it, the I’d-rather-eat-it-than-ask-for-the-money-back-due-to-the-details-of-the-situation-which-I-can’t-really-go-into-here-but-trust-me-it-would-be-really-really-awkward part of me would rather not.  And Blaine, who never, ever, in a million years, expresses any negative emotion, told me he was frustrated with me.  Which hurt my feelings, then he apologized, so of course I got over it, but now I feel guilty about it and so to make up the money in our household budget each month I will probably resort to selling Avon.  Or platelets.

Speaking of money, because goodness knows there is nothing as peaceful and comfortable and impersonal  to discuss on the internet, do you remember when my camera just up and quit working during the Santa photos at school last December?  Well, I’m not sure if I ever mentioned it, but after I took it to my favorite local camera shop and they sent it off to Canon for repair, I received an estimate that it would be a little over $200 to fix.  Which was annoying, since my warranty had just expired (of course it had) but I agreed to the price and gave approval for the repair.

And I’ve waited and waited and waited.  And actually needed a camera several times in the interim, so finally broke down and just BOUGHT another camera, same make and model, but used, because it was cheaper in the long run to buy a used camera than pay the rental fee every time.  Fast forward to today ……. almost FOUR MONTHS after the camera was sent in, and Canon returned it to the local shop with a revised estimate of $939, stating the repairs and labor would be much more extensive than they initially realized.

That’s more than I paid for the stinking camera in the first place.

And I was all, “Seriously?  Are they on crack?”

And the guy at the camera shop was all, “I know!  Its ridiculous!  You absolutely have to say no.  We can sell you a brand new camera for less than that!”

And I was all, “Is this an April Fools Joke?  Do you have my repaired camera right there, just waiting on me to come pick it up?”

::silence::

No, it wasn’t a joke.

Now, this isn’t a Canon-bashing post.  I get that every now and then there’s a lemon in the bunch and I guess that’s what my camera was.  Although it worked great for the three years I had it.   Until it, you know …. didn’t.   And there’s no chance I would switch camera brands, so please don’t think this is all wah-wah-Canon-screwed-me.  First, I have all the interchangeable lenses and batteries and cards and external flashes and everything else, and to switch to another brand and replace everything would cost a heck of a lot more than $939.  Second, I have been using Canon since my very first SLR purchase in 1998, and this is the first time I’ve had any serious problems.  Third, I’m sure even Nikon or Sony or whoever cranks out the occasional lemon, too, so I’m not about to switch loyalties when really, statistically, odds are in my favor with Canon that I’ll go another thirteen years without an issue.

But still.  Grrrrrrrrrrrr.  (that’s my annoyed voice, in case you weren’t sure.)

I need to just sit back and close my eyes and think of pachinas and drag queens and make myself smile again.