One step forward. Two steps back.
I've always found astrology pretty entertaining, and there do seem to be groups of characteristics common to people of specific signs. I'm not especially knowlegable though, so I have to ask -- have the stars aligned malevolently to create frustration and despair in my life? Any other Aquarians out there suffering similarly?
For instance, nine months after a fender bender, my husband finally found an affordable headlight lens ($40 versus $400) for my Volvo station wagon. Woo Hoo! But he couldn't figure out how to put it on, so we put it in the shop. They had to remove the bumper to do it, but for $127 it still seemed like a bargain. Woo Hoo!
But they messed up the cute little headlight wipers (it was a used car; I didn't order them), so now they stick straight out and the front of my car looks like a catfish. Not such a big deal though, right? Wrong.
Apparently this has caused some electric/electronic problems, the "Check Engine" light is on, and the thing is running badly...sometimes. Saturday it was giving me the message to "Slow down or shift up" while the "Check Engine" light was blinking frantically. (How do you shift up from Drive?) Turn the car off. Turn it back on. No problem, car runs great again. Woo Hoo!
You can guess what happened when I began the drive to work this morning. So back to the shop it goes.
But that's only part of what makes me think something in the stars has gone retrograde.
We finally started painting the dining and living room. Ceilings first, of course. Woo Hoo! Before we could even get the furniture back in place, we noticed that the paint was peeling off in one corner. No wait...that's paint and plaster. Hey! What's this big wet spot on the sofa? That's right, the AC handler in the attic isn't draining properly, so before we can do any more painting, we have to work on the AC handler and its drain line.
Fortunately, in times of stress, I like to dig into tedious challenging projects like stripping wallpaper. Score it, steam it, scrape it. Works like a charm...usually. Most of the wallpaper (and, oh, was it ghastly wallpaper) came off pretty easily. But not the faux brick stuff on the far wall. Score it again, steam it again. Nothing. Add highly toxic wallpaper remover and steam it again. Nothing. Turns out the sweet old lady who owned the house before us applied contact paper to the walls. Not even Goo Gone will get it off. (Why would I be surprised...it didn't take off the glue she used to put down carpeting in the bathroom, either.)
Unable to withstand any more frustration, I did a little internet research, and apparently there are a lot of daft people out there using contact paper on the walls! The trick to removing it? Apply heat. And, good news, I own a blow dryer! Woo Hoo!
At least I used to own a blow dryer. I burned it up removing contact paper at 11:00 last night. Still...only a little more contact paper to get off the area above the cabinets and I'll be done! Blow dryers are cheap. We'll just tile over all the paint and plaster that came off with the contact paper. No biggie. And the burns on my hands will heal in just a couple more days.
Woo Hoo.