My world always seems to be in a mess, although I can thankfully say that nothing terrible has happened and that I have not experienced a life threatening injury or sickness. Still, little things can add up, can’t they?

I sometimes think everything is fine and then I remember that line from one of the great Joni Mitchell’s songs, “Just when you’re thinking that you’ve finally got it made, bad news comes knocking at your garden gate.”

Well, it can’t come knocking at my garden gate because it fell down. Actually, it was the tree guy I hired to take down a tree to make room for that backyard building that is still unfinished and for which I am still paying, who knocked the garden gate down—along with a shingle or two from the side porch as he dragged the limbs to the curb. At the same time, he also broke my handmade paving stone with lighthouse that my mean ole neighbor made for me. You can say that I rally paid for that tree!

I lost a filling the other day, careless, I know, and the dentist told me it would be cost slightly less than a ride on the space shuttle to get it replaced. Needless to say, I have another hole in my head, and my insurance “coverage” isn’t. Comical, yes, covering no.

I was lying in bed the other night watching the Explore Channel, Travels and Traditions with Burt Wolfe, when my TV screen died. It went woozy, swelled up, shut down and then went out. Completely and forever. And you know that it is cheaper to buy new than to repair these days, so now I have to stop my vicarious traveling to northern Italy, my future home when and if my ship comes in. Now I was perfectly happy and able to go years without a TV set, but my family felt sorry for me and kept giving me their old ones and soon I had a nice collection, nice enough that I could share those given to me most recently with friends and co-workers. So now I am addicted to TV and my friends have all the best, largest screened, flat panel ones and I have a small black and white portable model with rabbit ears. The Explorer Channel has taken on a whole new meaning.

I bought two new tires, and one of them had a defect, a large bubble on the side. I found out about this from a friend who borrowed my car. He said that he would take it back to Lumberfun for replacement, but before he could, he got involved in a slight fender bender. It was flat on a morning several days later when I was late for work and had to pick up a co-worker. When I did send the tire back for replacement, the company refused, saying it looked like there was other damage to the tire, which there was—caused by me kicking the ptooey out of it.

And, of course, my insurance company had to get involved because the accident involved another car. My car is still not fixed. The door won’t close and I am afraid I will fall right out—probably in front of an oncoming tractor-trailer.

But that is not the really bad, worst vehicle news. My sister gave a wonderful van, and I drove the Dickens out of it. But I began to notice that it started to get a little harder for it to go into first gear, and then I noticed that it wouldn’t go into first gear at all. I am not all that good with cars, but it didn’t take a satanic mechanic to figure that one out! New transmission!

So the van sits rotting in my driveway, while I drive the car that suffered not only exterior damage but some rather nice damage to the motor as well. When will it go out? Probably when I am on my road somewhere, like the Beltline in Raleigh, traveling at about 85 miles per hour.

Just last night, while I was lying in bed trying hard not to watch World Cup updates, it seems that you don’t even need rabbit ears to pick up the World Cup broadcasts, I noticed that the ceiling fan overhead was making a terrible groaning noise—and that it wasn’t rotating. It had died. Uh oh.

Say, isn’t it about time that my air-conditioning unit blew up, too? Yep....

So all this bad news, while none of it is life altering, has forced me to start supporting the NC Education system.

With my luck, I will probably have the winning Powerball ticket but lose it the day before the winning numbers are drawn. Goodbye Northern Italy!