Bad Luck: The Cost of Being Unlucky & Why My Socks Are Always Wet

The repair estimate for my camcorder came in today. Would you believe they want $167 to eject a cassette? My mind is still spinning. The estimate is so ridiculous that I'm actually laughing out loud. I'd have to be insane to pay them that much. Since I bought my Canon ZR70MC the prices for such toys fell through the roof. I can get a Canon ZR200 for $369 at Amazon.com. It shoots in widescreen format and can function as an analog to DV passthru converter, plus it would have a warranty. I pay $167 and I get an old camcorder refurb with no warranty. All because the silly camcorder pooped out on me one week after it's warranty expired. No, thank you.

Other updates: The MIDI keyboard we purchased at Christmas has four dead keys. Took me two weeks of phone tag to get a Return Authorization number. That was fun. Palm wanted to bill me for that extra Zire72 they mailed me by accident. That was fun. Qwest forgot to reinstate my static IP address after rudely disconnecting me from the internet for a week and a half and now they want to charge me another setup fee. More fun. And my iBook's possessed trackpad is still possessed even after I had the topcase replaced. Maybe I should move back to the caves and give up on electronics?

One happy note. My third Palm Zire72 hasn't peeled or shown any traces of rot. I have to admit I am pleasantly surprised. I wasn't expecting them to get it right on the third try.

Meanwhile, I am preparing my next blog essay of sorts. This time I will tackle insomnia. Since it's 3am while I type this, I think that insomnia is definitely a trouble spot in my life. While you are waiting for my next entry, share with me your crazy bad luck experiences. They don't even have to involve electronics. For example, did you know that if there is a wet spill somewhere on the floor I will be the one to discover it? The entire kitchen will be filled with family, but somehow I'll be the only one to step in the spill. My kids think it's funny. My wife thanks me for mopping up the spill with my socks. I just try to figure out how I can see this odd event as a positive attribute. It's hardly a job skill, unless I could freelance for Hazmat...

Comments

D.R. Cootey said…
One of the main reasons I had for starting this blog was to take the depressing or bizarre aspects of my life and write about them humorously. Why let them get me down? Why whine and whinge? Why not put my sarcasm and cynicism to good use?

Well, on rereading last night's blog I have to admit that it just wasn't funny enough. Sarcasm in text requires an element of exaggeration to come across properly because the reader cannot hear my tone of voice. Without the exaggeration the writer can come across as simply jaded and cynical, or worse they can come across as whiney. In this entry's case, I feel that it sounds like I'm complaining, which I was, but not with a twinkle in the eye. I probably should have slept on it and rewrote it today...
April 13, 2005 12:27 PM
Anonymous said…
I don't ten to think about 'uck' itself, because then I would be too focused on whether something that happened recently was down to luck itself...which would only serve to drive me round the bend :)

One thing I have declared to be 'bad luck' was when my kitchen was set on fire. While the roof was being fixed. While it was raining. Bizzare? Damn right, the escapade forced me to refurnish the whole room, while all I wanted was a working, leak-free roof.
April 14, 2005 10:35 AM
D.R. Cootey said…
That's hilarious! Never a more apt comment could be made than "When it rains, it pours!"

I tend to think of luck as things that just happen randomly - the way events fall together. Sometimes they work in our favor, sometimes they don't. For some reason things just don't fall in my favor often.. Oh, well. I assure you I take no comfort that I am not alone in this. Hopefully the damage in your kitchen was minimal.
May 03, 2005 11:04 AM
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