Spezzato

"...Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold..."
-----William Butler Yeats


More mundane yet somehow aptly expressed by the foregoing verse of The Second Coming, there seems to be a piper to be paid these days, mainly for the sin of deferred maintenance.

The Subaru Outback (in Kentucky it is referred to as a "Sa boo roo") is in the shop for a head gasket replacement, among other things. It is 9 years old, so not too surprising. What was surprising was the range in bids on the replacement. $4,000 was the highest. I took it to 2 other shops before ending at Carter Subaru, the dealer where I had purchased it, and it is being done for substantially less, plus they have provided a loaner car, which is so essential. They did all this for me, Friday afternoon, when I called a friend of mine who worked there. She is a fellow soccer mom and quickly became the catalyst for such good care from them.

Then the washing machine, 7 years young, has been dancing a very loud, drunken jig, on the spin cycle for a few months. Her behavior went from bad to worse, when I discovered yesterday that she's also become incontinent. And of course she's part of a stacking duo and irreplaceable: there is no washing machine that will fit properly under the matching dryer, so do I replace them both or try for something I can put side by side? I hate to part with a perfectly capable dryer.

And finally, my multi cd player has gone rogue, refusing to play any of my cds, no matter how nicely I punch his buttons. As one who thrives on music, this is simply unacceptable, so it was hied off to the repair shop this past week and a half. However, in the pattern of repair persons everywhere, repair person has been on vacation so it will be some time before I learn whether to fix or to replace. My preference is to fix, but the modern consumer culture makes it much cheaper simply to toss the old one away and get something new.

These things come in threes. I am hopeful my triplet is finished