When It Rains It Pours And Pours And Pours

My wife and I have had the worst time of it for 2011 already. Our newborn was hospitalized for a week with pneumonia after trying to fight off a head cold. Our toddler spent a few days in the hospital for dehydration after a bad bout with the GI bug. My wife and I have also been hit with these infections. She has had a much worse time with them than I since she is still recovering from the delivery of our son. This all came about after we were so happy to have been blessed with our happy, healthy children.

It also seems like our house is bad luck for us. We have been through multiple water events - some much worse than others but all of them stressful. We are attempting to correct some of the plumbing issues to remedy the leaks, hard water and other problems. Being a fire sign, I can understand my issues with water but this is ridiculous. We are hoping that fixing these issues changes the luck of the house but things rarely work out that way for us.

So this weekend we perused the cars at the mall. I think we decided that a Prius would be my next vehicle in a couple of years. I get in my car today and guess what? Yep, the check engine light was on. This will probably be a small thing to fix like a cracked head or bad transmission. I will keep you posted.

Maybe I am just being paranoid but it seems like whenever we do something that affects our lives in a positive way there are many new roadblocks that jump up to slow us down. By the time my wife and I die we will be the strongest people in the world because whatever doesn't kill us ....

Update: My wife has a horrible head cold, my son has a lower GI issue and my daughter has a fever. Yep. We cannot wait for this 'season of disease' to be over with. We had better have a comfortable, healthy spring and summer for putting up with all of these illnesses.

Stay Healthy

Update: My check engine light was diagnosed as a leak in the intake venting system, i.e. my gas cap needs replacing. The cost for that is over $100 including the diagnosis time. Oy! In addition I had them check out why my environmental controls blower fan only worked on the two highest speeds. Turns out the resistor was bad. Cost to fix including diagnosis: over $150. Two minor items to replace and $200 worth of diagnosis time. BTW.. they had my car in the shop for less than two hours. I should have invested in an auto diagnostic tester but it probably wouldn't have helped with these items. If only automobile technology could catch up to to the point where your car can tell you what is wrong or, preferably, what is going wrong so you can get it fixed before it becomes trouble.

At least these are minor items to deal with (knock on wood). Keeping my fingers crossed that my car lasts another 10 years so my eldest daughter can get some use out of it. Since it only has 39027 miles on it and its over 10 years old now it should last as long as we keep it in good repair.