Gremlins In The House

I can’t believe the luck that I had with electronic equipment last weekend.

I had planned to do some vacuuming around the house last weekend. I am so bad at vacuuming and dusting that most of the time there would be dust bunnies the size of elephants lurking around the place. So when the urge to be more domestic hit me, I pulled out the old vacuum cleaner and started to vacuum the carpets. About a few minutes into the vacuuming, I suddenly realized that I could smell rubber burning from somewhere. What I didn’t realize as I ignored the smell of something burning was that black smoke was coming out from my vacuum cleaner.

By the time I finally figured out what was happening, sparks suddenly flew out of the little motor and the next thing I knew my little vacuum cleaner turned into a mini fireball in the middle of my living room. After panicking and screaming like a girlie girl, I collected enough of my wits together to switch off the main power and put out the flames. The carpet got a bit singed but there was no major damage but the vacuum cleaner was a total loss.

After that ordeal, I decided to take it easy and load up the washing machine with my weekly wash while I put in a few rounds of PS2. The machine was trudging along quite nicely when suddenly there was a clanking sound coming from the back of the machine. When I realize that the clanking sound was getting louder, I went to look at what was happening with the machine when the washing machine sort of rumbled and I could swear burped at me before just giving out altogether. I ended up having to send the dripping mess to the nearby laundry place much to the amusement of the lady running the place.

To add salt to the wound, I found out that the watch that I had wore daily for the last 5 years also died on the same day when the vacuum cleaner and washing machine died. It took me a while to figure out that I was looking at the same time three times that morning and yet not notice anything was wrong. This was something that I really didn’t need to happen after all that had happened that morning. The watch was something that I really cherished and I was really upset that it can’t be repaired any more.

I ended up putting a dent in my already limited disposable income by getting myself a new washing machine and watch. That plus some new shirts to replace the ones that were looking very close to threadbare, a new bottle of my favorite perfume and new supply of multivitamins. I guess I over did it with the spending a tad bit this month and I know I’ll be regretting it towards the middle of the month. Given the day that I had, a little retail therapy didn’t hurt to smooth things over.