I am cursed!

I was beginning to suspect it. But now it has been confirmed by my AC/heater/washing machine/dehumidifier/refrigerator repairman!

I heard Mr. Dickens raising a ruckus by the front door early this afternoon while I was in the backyard cleaning the bird cage. When I opened the door I found Payne, my long delayed repairman who'd come to repair the washing machine he had loaned me seven months ago. Or, in other words, he came to repair his washing machine.

He dropped my dehumidifier, still dripping from its cleaning, into the sunshine on the side of the porch. "You want me to leave it here to air dry, right?"

"Sure." I responded, looking doubtfully at the water dripping from the vents and wondering if an electrical appliance should look as though it was just pulled out of a tub.

"It wasn't very dirty, you know."

"Yeah, it shouldn't have needed cleaning for a full year, but we'd found some mold behind the shower and we'd cleaned it out. You know all it takes is one spore . . ."

"Yeah . . ."

Sometimes you know the message wasn't lost on a person. Most people lose the message about mold spores, but Payne is obviously more intelligent than most.

"That's a neat little machine--you know that? Easy to clean, not much to 'em."

I could tell he was intrigued by it. "My sister has one in her basement." He launched into an explanation of how it works as he followed me through to the kitchen. I indicated the sick fridge. He took a look at it and not much of one either. "Might as well buy a new one."

"You mean you can't fix it?"

"Not worth it. It'd cost $500.00 or more. Might as well buy a new one."

He headed out in the direction of the washing machine. The refrigerator had been an unscheduled stop.

As he scanned the situation, my guilty streak kicked in and I said, "I really ought to pay you for those--they don't look like much, but they've been doing a great job." I'd hate to part with the $50.00 he wanted for them, but I really ought to. 'A month or two' is long gone!

"Yeah, good machines. They're really Maytags, you know?"

"No! I'd never even heard of that brand before."

"Sold by Sears." That began a discussion about how appliances used to be made and how differently their construction had been forty years ago, including the story of a friend's dad who has had a dryer for that long and it has only needed three small parts replaced in all those years. "Yep, 1968," he said as he bent down behind the washer.

He borrowed a flat head screwdriver and started breaking into the top of it. "You must be cursed," he said as the top plopped back revealing the strange looking works at the heart of the machine.

"Yeah, I think I am."

"You're having quite a streak of bad luck here."

"All year."

He became serious about the operation of the washer, replaced the broken part and replaced the framing. And then, as though the conversation about curses hadn't been broached before, he said, "I think you're cursed."

As soon as I had seen him out the door, I climbed into the car to go to Sears and check out the Whirlpool refrigerators he'd recommended. As though we can afford a new fridge! The old one was dated 1998, top of the line Amana. I'm not buying top of the line anymore.