It all HAS to be a cruel joke

I mean, you just gotta laugh, you have to. Or you'll just plotz in a corner and cry till your tear ducts are bone dry.

First, my mother.

She started by just having a radiator repaired. No big deal. $98 bucks. When this seemingly small task was completed, the heat wouldn't come up. She tried and tried and that little click was nowhere to be found. The next day she calls the plumber guy back, he shows up, works on the boiler, nothing. He says I know a guy who can fix this. Great! He shows up. He works on it for 4 hours. Can't figure it out. He comes back the next day, says he needs a valve for a boiler that's nearly a 100 years old. As he's leaving, the carbon monoxide meter is beeping its brains out. She runs out into the street to tell them. They come back in. They examine the chimney and furnace. Absolutely filthy. My dad was not one for maintaining things. He thought they took care of themselves. The septic system in the house in PA was destroyed; he didnt have it serviced, not even once in 30 years. It had totally collapsed. Now that I have my own septic system, I know now it has to be emptied every 4-5 years. He never had it done and it vaporized, literally.

He never had the furnace and chimney cleaned because - wait for it - gas burns clean. OK. So after these guys leave, we have to walk my mom through turning the furnace off over the phone, due to carbon monoxide. She has to go to the electrical box and switch the button for the furnace. She's freezing in there for 2 days. They order her to have someone come in and have both the chimney and furnace cleaned immediately. As I type, someone there doing that and replacing the chimney liner and cap. $2100. So, so far she's in for $3000. The valve ended up costing $900.

So a little radiator repair has escalated into $3000.

Now me. I have seemingly developed lymphedema. For those of you unfamiliar and why should you be familiar, that's when your lymph fluid gets confused after lymph nodes have been removed, and doesn't know where to go. Your arm swells up and it hurts like hell, let me tell you. My arm is killing me and it's starting to swell up. By sheer coincidence I have a surgeon follow up appt. today. So I guess I'll find out what to do. Never a dull moment around here, let me tell you. My right thigh is numb to beat the band, getting electric shocks, that really hurts as well.

Even my mother is starting to think someone put a curse on us.

And in between all this we're trying to get the house in order; like get the furniture cleaned, put on new slipcovers, sand and stain the dining room table, clean the dining room chairs, put up new curtains, get a dumpster for all the trash, clean up the rooms, paint the bedroom, on and on and on and on, and not go bankrupt. Oh and Ray has to go to work occassionally.

So how is your day going?