In Threes

As the saying goes, bad luck comes in threes. It appears that annoyances come in threes as well.

Late this morning, right after I got up, I discovered we had no water. Before dialing the phone to report our state of waterlessness, I glanced with disdain at yesterday's dishes in the kitchen sink. The water problem was fixed in less than two hours' time, but the dishes are still awaiting my attention. They can wait.

Today's second annoyance occurred after Rebel and I drove to our mailbox, returned home, and I opened a credit card statement, informing me I had a $39 late charge in addition to my last unpaid payment along with the current payment due, which annoyed me because I had mailed them my last payment immediately upon receipt of their previous statement on May 14. So I phoned the credit card company and listened to a recording, which informed me they had received my payment on June 14, hence, the late charge. Excuse me, where had my check been for four weeks? Putting it nicely, I suspected a clerical error on the part of someone at the credit card company, since my check posting exactly one month after the date on my check appeared a bit too coincidental. What are the odds? And so I spoke to a credit card representative, who said it had been the fault of the post office that they'd received my check so late, and he removed the $39 late fee. (Granted, it is possible that my check had gotten temporarily lost by the post office. I once received a postcard from Bethlehem, PA, mailed years earlier, which finally arrived in my mailbox with a note saying that it had been stuck inside some postal machinery. I digress.) Next step: I asked the customer service rep the amount of my corrected payment, and when it didn't sound right to me because it was nearly double what I'm used to paying as the minimum, I questioned the rep again. If you haven't guessed, my interest rates had gone up because of my so-called late payment. While the rep talked with his supervisor, I was thinking to myself what an annoyance it would be to have to spend my afternoon, my time and energy, reporting the credit card company if they didn't return my account to its former interest rate. While the rep had me on hold, I decided I would go straight to the top, to the one responsible for credit card reform, meaning someone who works at the federal government level. But instead of doing that, here I am; after the rep talked with his superior, my credit card interest rate was dropped back to its former low rate. And Rebel and I drove to the mailbox this afternoon, before the arrival of the postal carrier, simply to mail my latest credit card payment, due on July 3. Oh, today's polite credit card rep assured me that payments get credited almost immediately or within 24 hours, or whatever it was he said, while in my mind I had a tape playing a conversation I'd had perhaps a couple of years ago with a nasty credit card rep from a different company, who told me it sometimes takes up to 10 days for payments to get posted and, hence, that accounted for the late charge I'd called about in that particular instance. But now we have credit card reform....

Annoyance number three concerns the interruption of my TV viewing. Instead of watching The View, I was on the phone with the credit card company. Fine, when I finished with that annoyance, I sat down to watch an encore presentation of The Bonnie Hunt Show, but much to my disappointment, the show has gone off the air.

Godot Hears My Screams

I had hoped to watch Vera Wang on The View yesterday. However, that was not meant to be, since fate had already determined I would be busy, starting at exactly 11 am. Without going into details, let's just say that I found myself unexpectedly screaming for help on my deck. I happened to glance up, and there was Godot, who had been the first one to respond to my screams. Godot was ready to come to my aid, but, unfortunately, he was on the other side of the living room windows. When human help finally did arrive, more than ten minutes later, I asked, "Was I not screaming loud enough?" I was exasperated and on an adrenaline rush, since I had almost given up on anyone showing up. You see, I am quiet by nature. This was the first time I have ever really screamed. Therefore, it felt odd, finding myself in the predicament of being forced to scream at the top of my lungs, especially because it seemed as if I had been screaming for a very long time. And I didn't understand why nobody was yelling back to me that they were coming to assist me. Well, I had been screaming loudly, I was told. In fact, my screams woke up one of the neighbors, but neither one of the two neighbors who showed up could figure out the direction of my screams at first. My screams must have been bouncing off the snowy mountainside. Anyway, I hope I never hear anyone screaming, but if I do, I shall pick up the phone and dial 9-1-1, before trying to figure out the direction of the screams. As for my throat, right now I'm hoarse, but I find that honey helps.

The View

Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Proverb

That is what Whoopi Goldberg said on The View this week. As I've said before, we all quote.

At approximately 4 AM, I discovered my cats viewing one of the bathroom walls with great interest. There was nothing to be seen, only something to be heard, since somebody was trying to gnaw their way into the bathroom. I can't imagine a mouse being that loud. I heard something being dropped inside the wall. It made the same sound as a walnut falling against wood, which made me think of squirrels. Anyway, the gnawing continued, on and off, for nearly half an hour. Then much to the disappointment of my cats, but to my great relief, the gnawing stopped. I visualized the mystery animal gnawing through the wood and giving up after striking bathroom tile.

We have had unwelcome house guests over the years. Assorted spiders, a snake, and numerous mice. But we have had no drop-in rodents or reptilian visitors for at least a couple of years now. However, every spring my cats inform me that there is someone living under the bathtub. I hear sounds emanating from there also, but I am not about to remove the bathtub panel in order to find out who had babies. I like to think that it's an opossum family. There is the possibility of it being a family of snakes that visits for a few weeks each spring; that keeps my curiosity in check. After all, curiosity killed the cat.