It’s interesting how when one thing breaks it causes a chain reaction.  In the past week my irrigation pipes for the automatic sprinkers, my car’s battery and then my printer all decided it was time for a bit of a shake-up on Hall Road.

I caused the car battery to fail because the other week I had to get Kathy and drive her to the gym because her car wouldn’t start.  This is her new Mercedes SUV.  I told her when she phoned the dealer to tell him her friend has a 1998 Honda Civic that starts all the time. 

Then the other day I got dressed, put on makeup and jumped into my car, and nothing.  I was momentarily stunned because if you know Hondas, you know they start no matter what.  I have BCAA so I called them and a nice man came and started the car for me.  He said I likely have an old battery which makes sense as I bought the car in 2009 and it was probably there a year or two prior.

I raced to Canadian Tire and Nicky put in a new battery for me, so that was a big saving.  He’s very handy around Hondas as yesterday he put either new brakes or brake pads, God only knows, on the front for me.  I have my own private mechanic.

A landscape company  came to blow out my pipes for the winter, and they’ve never been here before, so I walked out and showed the woman where the water box is.  I was a bit nervous because I had to kind of explain to her how I think companies did it in the past, because I really haven’t ever watched them do it.

Because of that I was completely unsurprised when half an hour later there was a knock at the door and the woman was standing there holding a piece of broken pipe.  She said, “it was glued…” and I said, “yes my son and his friend glued it in the spring.  Why were you turning that part, anyway?”

She drove off and returned in the afternoon with her husband.  They worked together for about half an hour and then knock, knock, knock, now he was at the door with a different broken piece.  He said they’d return to fix the system.

Several days later he returned and today it’s supposed to be ready to be blown out for the winter.  I can’t wait.

Finally, the printer stopped working, and as all of us who are self-employed know, not  being able to mail an invoice means no cheques appear in the mail.  It was a nerve-wracking few days, but that’s working again, too.

In the midst of it all my low back went on me and it was done in the stupidest way possible.  Mango is such a stand-offish cat, but he decided to sit in my chair, so I was carefully perched near the front so as not to bother him.  To be extra nice, I carefully reached behind me to try to pet him, and whammo!

It’s really hard to believe as in the gym we don’t just sit and pet cats,  yet my back never goes out as we do jumping jacks, burpees and mountain climbers.  Weird, eh?