things falling apart

Music: Kirilian Camera: Eclipse (1988)

Things Falling Apart is the title of a less than successful Nine Inch Nails album. It is also my theme for the past week:

• One of the upper-legs of my coffee table has finally given way. I got a new paycheck and, therefore, a new coffee table should arrive in the mail this week.
• Yesterday my Airport Extreme thingie was not transmitting properly. I went to unplug it as the troubleshooting guide instructs you to do, and the plug itself came unhinged from the base. I am now without Airtunes to my infinite chagrin. Worse, the budget cuts at UT mean that I will have to purchase its replacement myself. Boo. What a shitty design for an Apple product.
• When I restart my laptop, it takes two and a half hours for it to reboot. When I run Disk First Aid, it says "no volume repair needed."
• I tried to burn a DVD on my desktop. I received a "drive failure" report. I tried to burn a CD-R. Same message. Also, after about six hours of being on my desktop cursor is unable to click on anything, but freely moves around the screen. When I run Disk First Aid, I get the message "Unable to repair volume; fatal error on exit." So now I must decide: which sick computer do I take into repair first. It's a gamble.
• Because of the previous two incidents with my computers, I recently purchased a 750 GB external drive to back up my documents (mostly my MP3 collection, which is comprised of my 4,000 CDs in addition to my legal downloads, about 1,000 more songs). It seems to be working beautifully and after three days I'm almost done backing up, but I predict disk failure at any moment.
• Jesus, King of the Indoor Poo, has re-earned this title. For the past three days he has consistently pissed and shat in the house. He also knocked over a bunch of paint on the downstairs tile floor (I was painting a new garden gnome). This, after almost two weeks of pretty good potty behavior. I am uncertain if this is the last gasp of a habit (so-called "extinction of habit" symptoms) or my failure to be a good doggie parent and notice when he has to go. Although he is a sweet doggie, I'm having second thoughts about keeping Jesus; the constant stress caused by his elimination habits (not to mention the $200 I just spent replacing a couch cushion for such habits) is wearing me down. He is now fully crate trained (yay) and does a couple of tricks (sit and beg), but the little guy has gone through a gallon of "Simple Solution" stain and odor remover. [just as I'm about to post this, he comes and sits in my lap and looks lovingly at me; . . . awwww . . . bastard!]
• I cannot keep my night guard in my mouth at night; I always awake to find myself sleeping on it. I've noticed that my teeth have been extra sensitive the past few days.
• Eudora, my email client, has been discontinued. The university no longer supports it. For the past week I have been trying to use Thunderbird. For a reason apparently beyond my capacity to apprehend, the SMTP server information is incorrect. I can only receive mail; I cannot send it unless I use my notebook computer or a web-based client on the desktop.
• For the past four days my DSL connection has been intermittently dropping me. The week before last I had a similar problem, which led to staying at home all day for two days so that a technician could come out. They replaced both my line and my modem. Things were fine after the second visit, and then, four days ago, the dropping started again. AT&T cannot figure out what the problem is, even after downgrading me to a lesser speed.
• I have had a recurring dream the past few days or so: I am asked to teach a class, or consult on a legal case, but I'm bluffing. I have no idea what I'm doing. For example, last night I dreamed I was teaching an adult education class on the Italian occult tradition; I was in front of the classroom about to open my mouth when I awake. In these dreams, just about the moment that someone is going to call my bluff, I awake.
• I'm off for my first UT football game ever. I predict, owing to my presence, the Longhorns will lose.
• I could go on. But if I do, I am fairly confident I will spill my Tab energy drink on the keyboard.