Living in interesting times

Jeff and I are approaching fifteen years of marriage (next April). We've lived in two apartments and our townhouse. I have started to figure out out that fifteen years is when everything starts to conk out, give out, and break down. We desperately need new couches and would like a new tv eventually. I think we might have the last cathode ray tube tv in Southern California. I'm at the point where I'm encouraging the kids to swing bats around it. But... there's always a more pressing need. For instance, so far this year we have replaced

1. a car
2. a mattress

So far this week (oh yes, this WEEK) we have replaced (and replaced because they broke, not just because we felt like it)

3. a washing machine
4. a tumble dryer
5. an iron
6. a garage door


As Jeff left for work this morning he said 'Be careful. I'm just waiting for the next thing.' I think he was kind of joking.

But by lunchtime I had the next thing all lined up. The printer won't work, despite putting all new ink cartridges in in an attempt to make it go. So this week we're averaging almost one appliance a day. I don't even want to think about how expensive this week has been.

Oh, and the other night his car wouldn't start, so we called AAA and they came out, and of course it started first time. So we still don't know what's wrong, and when it will next arbitrarily decide to stop working.

We had always thought we'd go on a big trip for our fifteenth anniversary. Because we didn't on our fifth, or our tenth. Guess what, we're not going on our fifteenth either. Because something else will have broken by then.