Break Down

Does it seems sometimes that everything goes "on the fritz" all at the same time? Well, it is happening to us. After the mother of all storms, our refrigerator in the garage went kaput. And it was the one that was working the best. Then the dishwasher went crazy on us. Now we have to replace that. The element on our smoker broke, so for his birthday, I got Vince a new smoker. Today we tried it out for the first time. I smoked a whole chicken. I thought it would be done by 6:00 p.m., but by 6:45, it still wasn't finished, so we cut some off and nuked it in the microwave. Would you believe the microwave stopped working? Well, thank goodness it didn't. (Gotcha.) Even the washing machine is starting to act up, although I think its problem will be easily remedied. The part you put the fabric softener in isn't draining. This has happened before, and we fixed it, so I believe we can do it again.

I took the kids down to Edgewater Mall yesterday. It has some stores open. We only went in this one particular store. I thought since we were there, we might just as well drive all the way around the mall. I pointed out where Wendy's and McDonalds used to be. All that is left is a messed up McDonalds sign. I pointed out where a bank used to be and a gas station. We looked over at Edgewater Village and saw how every store (including Books-a-Million) was gutted and how the stores closest to the water didn't even have walls anymore. We drove around to the south side of the mall. I pointed out the O'Charley's sign. Remember when we all ate there and how terrible the waiter was? Anyway, the sign is the only thing that remains. That and the slab. I have so many good memories of that place. A bunch of us ladies from church would meet there occasionally to eat. We were always seated in the same place.

My friend, Delana, was over this afternoon. I said that another person and I were kind of joking about needing counseling. She said their church is having a group counseling session on Sunday afternoon. We were talking about how it probably would be a good idea to go just to talk about how the storm and its aftermath have affected us.

Well, I must go and wash dishes now since my dishwasher doesn't work. We're getting a new one this weekend which means we have to brave those notorious after Thanksgiving crowds. Speaking of which, you will not see me in a Walmart store until after Christmas. I refuse to go in there. With the lack of workers and the crowds, it would take forever to get out. I will grocery shop at Winn-Dixie and Sams.

Much love,
Katrina