THE WEEKEND FROM HELL - WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BAD THINGS HAPPENING IN THREES?

Last week I found this wonderful "pizza clock" in a catalog and knew I had to have it for the office, scene of many many pizza parties in the past.

I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the package as it looks even better in person than it did in the catalog! And so far it keeps time really well.
This past weekend I had made big plans to get my friend Tom Johnson out on the rivers and or lakes in the area to do a little fishing - something Tom hadn't done in years.

We planned on going all day saturday with Chad Wolter, friend, chiropractor and avid fisherman. Unfortunately, he called me late friday night to inform me that a friend was using his boat all day saturday, guiding some fishermen from out of town, so we wouldn't be able to go fishing until sunday.

So saturday morning Tom and I decided we would just kick back and enjoy one another's company. that is, until i got an e mail from Paypal informing me that I had bought $84.86 worth of software -- which of course, I had NOT. I immediately went into panic mode, scaring the hell out of Mr. Johnson, and after listening to me curse and stomp around the office for about an hour, he excused himself and left for Superior, Wisconsin, to check on the house and spend time with a friend there.

By mid-afternoon I had taken the necessary steps to put a stop on the purchase. It turns out someone in Cameroon (of all places) had hacked my password!

No sooner had I taken all precautions with that situation when my cell phone went belly up and refused to work. I can't complain too much as it lasted for about four years before giving up the ghost.

I went to Wal Mart and replaced the phone with a Samsung. I really like the new phone. the only drawback is that I am now currently re-entering all the lost telephone numbers from the other phone.

Okay - so that's two bad things in a row and now I began to listen for the other shoe to drop as I have always understood that bad things happen in threes.

And sure enough, I went to turn off the Dish Network receiver at the office and that had ceased operating correctly. No matter which button I pushed, all it would do is turn the television set on and off.

So I called technical support and the guy told me to unhook the VCR to straighten out my problem. By the time I was mid way through h is directions over the phone, I was entirely lost and had wires I couldn't account for.

I called my local repair guy who couldn't come out until monday and decided I would go fishing with Chad on sunday afternoon.
We launched the boat and headed over near the dam - we no sooner got along the shoreline than Chad got a ferocious strike on an artificial night crawler. He was using a really light ultra light spinning outfit with eight pound test line and he battled the fish for a good 15 minutes before we ever got a look at it.

It tuned out to be the channel cat shown here - running about 10 pounds. Me? I had one half hearted strike on a "tiny torpedo" and nothing more.

Then it began to drizzle. After fishing about two hours, I had had enough and asked Chad to take me back to the launching area.

I am not a tough guy when it comes to fishing in the rain with a cold wind in my face!

So here it is - monday - and the rains continue to pour down on us. Enough, already!!! I think it's time to had for the sauna - at least it's warm in there!

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