Mental Cobwebs

You know those days when everything goes wrong? They are the reason the phrase, "When it rains, it pours" exists.

I woke up last night at 11pm, tired from getting just under four hours of sleep, but ready to start a night of paper delivery. As I got on the laptop to sync my iPod, I noticed that it was displaying a big red X on the screen, instead of my list of music. Annoyed, I looked up on Apple's site exactly what that symbol meant. The directions told me to put it into "disk mode," though, no matter how many times I attempted to follow them to the letter I'd fail to actually achieve the desired effect. So I gave up, loaded my wife's old 1gb nano with my night's podcasts and set out.

After loading the papers into my car and buying the needed energy drinks, I went to put on my trusty headphones, only to have the the right side snap off. My attempt to tape it back together left much to be desired, but it had to do.

I got through my first route nearly finished when I discovered I was going to be significantly short on one of the three sections of the paper. 17 short, to be exact -- and just as I was realizing this, the podcast I was listening to abruptly ended. The iPod battery had died and I had no way to recharge it. Still half the night ahead of me and I was stuck with NPR/BBC and shitty music stations.

I trudged on and finished my second route. The caffeine was fading, but it was finally time to head home. Cue the unexplained car problems. As I left the gas station I noticed my speedometer was going a little haywire. I pulled over and it went back to 0, then I started up again and as I reached what felt like a normal speed it told me I was going 110 mph.

Apparently there are a couple things that could be wrong. One is a loose battery connection, which I pray is the problem. The other is a faulty powertrain control module. Hopefully that's not an expensive part to replace if it ends up being that one.

So, in one night I'm left headphone-less, with an iPod that I can't seem to repair, and a new car thing to have to fix. When it rains, it pours.