Good Stuff

Way back in '07, I mentioned we were having some Washer Woes. As it turns out, I had not somehow caused the washer to go out of balance, thus leaking all over my floor. Rather, it had some sort of explosion internally, thus leaking all over my floor without it being my fault.

In addition to that, the one-year-old laptop died two days after its warranty expired, and the fault of that brokenness may or may not have been attributed to me. James secretly thought it was all my fault -- I touched it last, so I must have broken it. I thought there was a chance that it wasn't my fault at all, but secretly believed maybe I did somehow break it in a way completely unbeknownst to me.

Regardless of fault, we were very concerned about what to do because replacing a washer and a laptop simultaneously a few days after a major holiday is just not a good plan for a family budget. We've been doing some other much more responsible things with our budget, thus tying up all extra funds, and though we could have shifted the money back to buy both a washer and a laptop, there would not have been enough to buy the washer that we ultimately want, while at the same time replacing the laptop that I killed died in a totally random way with one of similar qualities and abilities. We were stuck in a decision, and a week ago, I actually asked a couple of friends to pray about what we should do.

On Monday, my mom called. A friend of hers from work had a house that had just gone into foreclosure. He had some things he needed to unload quickly and cheaply, so we bought his working washer (that matches our dryer) for $50. He delivered and installed it for gas money, and took our old grill off our hands. Now I can do laundry once again -- can't you just tell I'm bursting with excitement?* What we were excited about was that obvious answer to prayer, and James commented, "Now if only something will work out with the laptop."

Today, we picked up a newspaper to look at sales ads and found a replacement laptop to purchase. It was similar to the one I had, though it had a little less memory, but it was on sale for a very good price. James called the store and was told there were nine more in stock, but before we went out to buy one, he decided to research the model a little online. While online, he linked to a Compaq site (that he swears wasn't online last week) and discovered our laptop has a one year extended warranty specifically for the problem that made it now non-functional. Yay! He called Compaq and was walked through the obligatory troubleshooting steps at home, and when the representative determined it was truly deceased, he ordered the delivery of a return box. If all goes as we anticipate, my original laptop with my pictures and totally non-backed-up documents should be repaired, restored, and returned at no cost to a very happy me.


*I should mention that at church this morning, the pastor spent a recognizable amount of time talking about he and his wife hate the neverending pile of laundry. He talked about ways they hide it in their home, some of which I'm very familiar with**, and some I have yet to try. His disdain for the laundry expressed in a public forum caused me to respect him even more.

**If you come to my house, don't open any closet doors. No reason, really. Just don't.