Well, it's becoming quite a week for mechanical devices around here. On Sunday night, the furnace broke. The timing was particularly bad (or good, depending on how you look at it) because I was supposed to show up at work on Monday. It was a professional development day, not a teaching day, so my absence wasn't disastrous, only impolitic.

Then on Monday night (because lousy things happen on the same day around here), Charlie's car died and he needed a jump. I went over and gave him a jump, but the car died again about a mile down the road . . . He needed to go to Ann Arbor, so we let him borrow the Hyundai, and yesterday morning I took his car to our local repair shop. They did a lot of work on it (including replacing the battery and removing part of a mouse nest!?!??!! - apparently somebody moved in during the several months when the car sat), and it was running really nice . . . except that tonight, while Charlie was working, it died again. Emil and I drove out (in separate cars) to rescue him, gave him the Hyundai so he could continue working, and took the car back to the repair shop. (Luckily, it only died once on the way.) Obviously there are more electrical issues than just the battery.

And on Tuesday I got a flat on my commuting bike . . . I suppose I'll take a road bike tomorrow (or maybe, since it's another professional development day, I'll wiggle out again . . . but that's really more wishful thinking than anything else . . . I won't do that).

I'm not feeling panicky yet; I still have a lot of work to do before the semester begins, but I think I'll be able to swing it. But I sure hope things settle down around here soon, and we can count on peaceful, predictable days for a while . . . I didn't exactly get a whole lot of work done tonight.

In hopeful news, Emil found out about a job possibility in East Lansing yesterday. It would be so-oooo nice if he were working in town; all the logistical issues would get easier. (And my god, if we also sold the house in Ann Arbor, we'd be rich! Life would be incredibly easy!!) The possibility of that job makes me remember that this phase, too, shall pass. Things will ease up. Already the days are appreciably longer, which makes everything better, in my view . . .

So my current fantasy for a perfect winter is that Emil gets a local job, and then we get a great big blizzard . . . :)