The Good, the Bad, and the Christmas

#1

The bad: the supply line to the water heater sprung a leak today. I definitely didn’t build a plumber into this month’s already-stretched budget. In the greater scheme of things, it could be far worse. We turned the water off to the house until we could get it fixed.

The good: There’s a small hardware store in town and our neighbor is a godsend. The problem was fixed by a $20 part.

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#2

The bad: It’s Christmas time and once again my computer hath taken a nosedive. It had issues around this time last year, too.

Mind you, this isn’t a $299 Black Friday laptop of dubious brand. It’s a $2000 rig and under two years old.

The good: Fortunately it’s covered by a service contract,. And this time it’s not a catastrophic failure (though if I let it go, that would ultimately be the outcome.) It’s just a failed fan. When turned on it sounds like a airplane taking off.

Since the computer itself is still functional, I was also able to back everything up in at least two places. So while it’s a pain to have to ship my computer out for the second time in two years, it’s far from the end of the world.

The annoying: For a couple of weeks I’ll have to deal with a dinosaur computer, while this one’s in the shop. Our backup machine is coming up on 10 years old, barely usable any more. G and I have been talking about this for a while. We’re gonna bite the bullet and get another computer sometime after the beginning of the year, so we have a functional backup machine.

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The excellent: We’re safe, all the kids are safe, and all the grandkids are safe. It’s been a while since I felt confident saying that, which is itself a reason to celebrate.

My sister is undergoing chemo. Her prognosis is good.

The water was a small leak and we caught it early enough to prevent damage.

I’m still gainfully employed.

There are even presents under the Christmas tree, and I helped the grandson make a gift for his mama this afternoon. (We bought a tee shirt and fabric paint. He’s put a rainbow of fabric-paint handprints on the tee shirt, which turned out adorable.)

Despite the unexpected glitches, I’m grateful..

I hope my small readership has a wonderful holiday and happy, healthy 2025.

May all your glitches be easy fixes.