Dear Karma, it's awful crazy out there!

I'm not going to get dragged into it all I have a party, well a picnic this weekend to get ready for. This and maintenance, landscaping repairs and the future repairs and modifications needed to the house are quietly but quickly overwhelming me with my 3 hours of commuting everyday. Little time to contemplate such matters as shooting massacres and Mitt Romney's Veep choice, foreign policy or any other such thing.

Last weekend the dryer died, it would heat up but not spin so it had become a large clothes toaster. I should have filled the brownie tray with waffle batter and jammed it in there to see how long it took to make a giant waffle brownie. I could put ice cream on it - after I heaped on bacon and melted chocolate or nutella or chocolate syrup. Yes it would have been epic. I had thought about putting the busted dryer/toaster in the garage just for this purpose but out of mercy for my wife I allowed the Lowe's guys to take it away. Her disbelief and shock at my ridiculous culinary plan might have forced her face into a contortion she might never recover from and that would be a shame since I was lucky enough to marry a very beautiful woman.

The washing machine didn't die, nor could I quickly hatch a plot to invent some Dr. Franken-purpose for the thing so it too was removed, like tail-lights I figured the two machines of matching vintage would fail at near the same time. Of course this kind of decision is rather expensive so I'm out a cool grand. I can't even tell you how much I've poured into the pool which, as we approach the final month of the pool season, isn't yet working quite right. The filter has some warping and cracking and the warranty company and their contractor have yet to admit it's time to just put in a new one.

The first repair man last year had told them as much and they fired him for it. They switched to this other contractor who told them what they wanted to hear and so we're stuck with him attempting multiple incremental fixes while neglecting the big picture. Now, the cost of multiple trips across state lines to effect many repairs which in hopes of avoiding an inevitable replacement of the whole means the cost to the warranty company is near double original estimates.

I wonder if the contractor and the warranty company "decider" worked in government?

Has anyone seen Bush 43 lately?

I didn't want to lose two weekends to Lowe's trips.  I bit the bullet and bought the total system replacement, you don't want to be in a home with three preschoolers and no functioning laundry machines, but the government it seems and so many others seem to favor short term, myopic solutions afraid to see the bigger problem looming just beyond their attention spans. I might have gotten upset about this in the past, now I just shrug my shoulders. I was going to spend the money on another project anyway so I just postpone that project and move on. I was happy to be able to plunk down the coin when so many go without the means to do so.

I see poverty is on the rise, to highest levels since the 50s or something, and true inflation somewhere in the 5-6% range means the economy has been in a negative growth (a decline) since 2005ish and some other stuff over at shadowstats which is a neat site for folks who like numbers and charts...I don't so no link here.

I avoid charts like the plague. I put one in a recent presentation I did as a decoy slide for people to have a laugh and to focus their attention on what I am saying and what the handout says not the screen in front of them. I hate powerpoint. I had contemplated just putting up vacation photos and pictures of my kids set to auto play while I lectured.

That will be a good way to do my final presentation once I'm able to give notice here at DOC. Seems they might be looking for more staff reductions soon anyway and with the very reduced threat of real terrorism I'm becoming less important and harder to justify I suspect.

So even though I had the cash to spend it stung a little. I told myself - self, shut up. The new machines will last long enough that you should only have to do this one more time your whole life. That helped. Still it stung and with inflation and my commute devouring my buying power I'm starting to worry.

And I know the kids expenses are about to explode as the middle child (Panda) gets ready for preschool/day care and what that costs. Still I wasn't that worried, not yet - I got a royalty check, then another for the kindle edition. I was thrilled to see they (amazon/createspace)  had lowered the threshold required before they'd pay out since it wasn't much. I didn't want the money so for the sake of Karma I donated both checks to the local soup kitchen with 200% matching funds out of my own pocket. If Karma wants to know what to get me for Christmas - I'd like my foundation to not shift anymore because my doors are all getting tight and if it shifts anymore I might not be able to get in or out of the house anymore. Anyway I hope it helps someone who might be having problems worse than mine.

So back to what matters most.

I finally got the pool open and working. Sort of. Yes there is the matter of a leaky pump/filter set up due to the changes in manufacturing standards for pumps since the original was installed some twenty years ago. I'll wager the new pump lasts only a fraction of that time despite its cost. But the delays on the part of the warranty company mean little, our new pool robot shark cleaning machine has arrived and that is exciting! Yes my oldest boy asked his mother "does the robot shark have a face?"

"No" she said "but you can paint one on with your dad if you like." Of course he's esctatic about this activity. I was thinking we could make it look like an old thunderbolt or the bow of the M/V Bob Barker.

But not today. Today like all of America we're preparing for the 4th of July holiday. Threat of a possible severe storm arriving at our celebration location will not deter us unless it knocks the hotel down before we leave our house (and we learn of this) but I suspect we'll be keeping our reservation.

You know what I can't believe is how much preparation goes into 15 minutes or 20 minutes of pool time for the kids. I've gone into battle with less preparation and a lighter load out and I only took them to the back yard! The oldest is afraid to come off the steps so he might as well play in a plastic 6" deep pool in the front yard. The Panda likes to jump in but only if I'm holding her hands as she does so and as soon as she hits the water the first words out of her mouth are "done!" What do you do with that?

Garden Daisy. That's what I did. I went to wally world and bought this plastic spinning daisy lawn monster that hooks to the hose and irritates the Sierra Club for how much water it wastes. The kids stood there squealing and making funny faces at it for as long as they had played in the pool. The sun is less intense in the front of the house and they're in no danger of drowning from the daisy so I might just get another one and a hose splitter so they can have a spinning clown faced chinese plastic daisy gauntlet to run through with minimal supervision. I considered that playing in the fresh water that toy sprayed all over the yard as a shower for them after the pool swim time so its good practical fun. My wife still made me give the kids a real shower after wards but I know it crossed her mind to let the hose down in the front yard count as a shower.

I guess I had to take them inside to brush their teeth before bed anyway.

But my secret fears that one of the kids would drown as I did as a toddler are evaporating in this heat wave. I never mentioned my secret fear because I think I knew it was irrational and maybe projecting my own fears owing to a childhood with an unusual (for Americans) death toll or near death experiences.

Please be careful out there though folks, July 4th is the most dangerous holiday so please don't become a Darwin Award and I'll see you next week.