trouble always rings thrice

According to our neighbor. Who we were talking to the other day about all the house turmoil and the car disaster. She said it seems to her that bad luck always happens in threes. So of course we got all worried, thinking, what will happen NEXT?? Then I decided perhaps the third bit of bad luck was the Outback that is still in Legal Limbo Land over the axle problem, keeping us from having a drivable vehicle the past month and a half. Of course, that was really more like good luck, though, for us at least. We didn’t get the car and then have the axles go out. And not know they’d just been replaced by the original owner recently.

Well. Today Baker B called his mom to tell her we’d likely come down tomorrow night. And she told him, very "oh, by the way"ish, that she tripped over a rock in her garden last week and fell down and now she’s walking around with a walker! And no, of course she hasn’t gone to the doctor, since going to the doctor would mean that falling when one is eighty six years old could be, like, a really really bad thing to have happen! But no, no, she’s fine, she’s got a neighbor coming in and looking after her!! No problem!

This isn’t even the bad luck part, since she could have been calling him from the hospital last week, having broken her hip. She swears it’s just a sprain. Baker B said, "Well, of course she didn’t call me last week when this HAPPENED. She’s afraid I have the nursing home on speed dial!!" Which she would find very funny, incidently. But I’m sure that IS a big fear – not that he’d be looking up nursing homes in the Yellow Pages as they spoke, but that one false move and the amazing freedom that she has for someone who is not that far from 90 would be coming to a screeching terrible halt.

SO. Tonight I decided I’d be a good daughter-in-law, and cook her something that she could stick in the freezer, since I doubt she can get out to the store. And the neighbor who is taking care of her is in WAY worse shape overall than she is, walker and all. I thought I’d make a spinach quiche and also a broccoli and rice and cheese thing that I know is quite good, since both will freeze and she could just cook it as she needed. Went to the store, got the stuff, came home, started out with the quiche. Whipped it up, stuck it in the oven, started chopping up broccolli… and heard this weird zzzzzZZZZzzzzZZZZZZ sound. Coming from the oven. Opened it up – and one of the elements is just flaming away in there beside the spinach quiche!

Being so stunningly quick-witted in a crisis, naturally I just stood there staring at it. Luckily the fire burnt right down once it occured to me to turn the oven off.

So, that’s it – Bad Luck Number 3. The oven has officially gone to Appliance Heaven. I am torn between, "Hooray!!! The oven has FINALLY DIED!!!! Now we can get a new one!!!" And, "Oh NO!!! The oven has finally died!! Could it have possibly picked a worst time??" Because I can tell you right now what’s going to happen. Since the burners still work, replacing it will be a very low priority. I’ve been telling Baker B that I want a new one for, oh, nine years now. It’s the original stove, so it’s from the late sixties. It’s so old that it’s that groovy funky avocado green color. As were the fridge and the dishwasher, before they died. We’d certainly never dream of replacing an appliance that still worked, no matter how ancient and ugly!

Now the quiche is in the freezer and I’ll have to just cook it at the MIL’s tomorrow, and forget the rice thing. Well, I suppose I can just leave her instructions – she can still turn the oven on. So much for loading her up with food, I guess.

On the good news front – my car is fixed!!! Well, so they say. I still don’t have it because State Farm hasn’t paid the Honda Place because the Honda Place didn’t know they needed to send a supplement claim even though I told them they needed to and they’d talked to State Farm themselves several days ago. And twenty other times as well so you’d think they would know the drill by now. But I think we’re going to just go get it and let State Farm send us the check, since that’s what’s happened with every other claim to date anyhow. They keep sending us the money instead of the Honda Place. So I actually have half of it from a previous claim already. I think everyone is so confused at this point none of us can figure out what to do next. I call State Farm and they call Honda and Honda calls me and I call Honda and State Farm calls me and I call Honda and on into infinity.

And that lovely iris from last entry? That was, ummmm, actually a gladiola. Several kind readers pointed that out very nicely without making fun of me for not knowing the difference, while other kind readers said things like, "Oh, what a pretty iris!" and didn’t add HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Flower Idiot!!!!

AND the job is still wonderful – nearly a week down and I like it more all the time. And already there is plenty of fun entry fodder. Just no time to write it.