it can stop any time now, thank you

This week has been nothing but a shit-storm of awful happenings and bad ju-ju.  (Okay, if you count Sunday as this week, that day was pretty good, but then it went downhill instantly as soon as Monday arrived.)

Searching to find the reason behind this plethora of craptastic-ness, wondering if it's a bad planetary alignment,  I've checked my horoscope...in a few different places...and they all say in some way that I have wonderful opportunities presenting themselves today and that I'll be so happy that I'll want to drop everything and run with it, but I should show some restraint.

Really?  When is this supposed to happen?  It's now 3:00 pm and nothing good has happened yet.  What time does the day end in the world of astrology?  Are we talking GMT or Eastern time? Standard or daylight savings?  I'd really like to have something to look forward to here. 

Consulting the moon phase at the side of my lovely little blog here, I see that we're not in the midst of a full moon yet, close, but not quite, so I cant blame la luna this time.  And speaking of the feminine mystique - it's not "that time" for me either.  Plus, these things have been completely beyond my control, so hormones couldn't be blamed anyway.

Let me run you through my week...not counting Sunday which was the annual trip to the Renaissance Faire and will be written about later. 

Monday morning - wake up and learn that my 3rd grandmother has died.  We knew it was coming any day, but it's still not a happy time.  In fact, it's a major bummer.  (I will be writing about her soon though - she was an amazing woman.)  Because of the bummer-nature of the news, I'm a little bit zoned out and running late for work - finally make it out the door 5 minutes late.

Oh - don't forget that while I'm trying to get ready for work, we're hit with a major severe thunderstorm and I have to keep checking outside to make sure nothing's blowing away and there's no damage.  Husband and son sleep through it all...

Okay, on the way to work, talking on the phone with my mother about pending funeral arrangements for previously mentioned amazing woman/3rd grandmother, watching the lightning in the not-so-distant distance, I drive through some branch scraps, and then notice a very odd noise coming from the driver's side tire.  I abruptly hang up with her, pull over and investigate, and find the tire is as flat as a Swedish pancake. 

For those non-Swedes, these are Swedish pancakes.  Much thinner than your flapjacks.

Crap!  At that moment, I had a complete and total mind-fart.  What do I do when I have a flat tire?  Ummm...try to drive home.  Yes, that makes perfect sense.  It's raining, I'm on a rural road not too terribly far from home. I can drive slowly along the side of the road with hazards on.  Of course!  Ker-thunk, ker-thunk.  Or not.  Thankfully I was able to get a hold of my husband and he was kind enough to save me and gave me the crap car to drive while he waited for roadside assistance.

After taking off the tire, they found that it was completely threadbare and could have gone at any time.  They also looked at the other tire and found it was ready to go as well, so we were left front-tireless.  Someone had a used tire that they sold to us for $10, so that took care of one. The other has been temporarily replaced by the lovely runt of the tire world - the donut.  Now we have to try to find another tire...that we can afford...by Saturday when we have to drive to Illinois for the funeral of the awesome amazing 3rd grandmother of mine.

All of that was yesterday.

Today I thought would have to be some sort of an improvement, but...um...no.  Well, it's not as bad as close family members dying, but in the grand scheme of how a day should go - it's pretty dang sucky. 

Driving on what my friend refers to as the "weenie wheel" and not being able to go over 50 mph instead of the 55-70 mph that I usually drive, I have to take a different route to work so traffic doesn't line up behind me and set a whole bunch of Wisconsinites into a rural road rage frenzy.  I made it to work...15 minutes late. 

Donut from Hades

Then I get a phone call from my wonderful husband with some really crappy news about one of his jobs and it's not really sitting well.  Usually I can brush this stuff off with no problems, because it's really not anything to worry about, but because of the way things have been going lately it's just getting to me.  Damn people.

I was so peeved today that I ate a donut (not the tire - the carb-filled sugary calorie wheel) and a cookie (peanut butter = protein), and I didn't even give a flying foutre.  Bring it, bitches!

So, stars, planets, constellations and the like...please get your asses in position and make some good things happen.  I can't deal with much more than this without breaking.  Or am I breaking up already?

P.S.  Don't get me wrong - I'm by no means trying to make the loss of a family member sound funny or seem flippant about it, I loved her dearly, but I'm at my wit's end.  You'll see how I really felt about this remarkable woman in another post.