Is Mercury in retrograde AGAIN??

I don't know. It seems like everything that could go wrong is going wrong. Everything, it seems, is a challenge lately. Like, we still don't have drinkable water at our house, and every few days we have to rechlorinate the well, which means we can't use water AT ALL for 3 days...which means we have to shower at friends' houses and/or we smell, we have to wash dishes with water from the neighbor's garden hose, and simple things like brushing teeth are a major challenge. It's all been really difficult because Azalea is in the final stages of potty learning and she can't wash her hands with the cool Kandoo foamy pump soap afterwards (which is definitely an incentive!). You know things are bad when you are reading hygiene manuals from rural communities in developing countries (where there is no running water/indoor plumbing/etc.) to get household hints...

I digress. So then we actually get hit by a tornado. Yes, a tornado. And the one and only tree in our backyard is plucked out of the ground -- roots and all -- and slammed on top of our shed. We're talking an 80 foot tree, here. We also lost part of our siding and the tree by our mailboxes, but we actually fared WAY better than a lot of people whose homes are completely trashed. About 20 houses were condemned, and tons more had damage like trees in their living rooms, collapsed decks and porches, rooves blown off, etc. So we were really lucky. But I have to say, though, that I don't ever want to have my kids cry over weather again.

Then there are the more minor things in the "everything that can go wrong, goes wrong" category. Like I smashed the side-view mirror off of the car, scraped the side of the car in a garage and got 3 speeding tickets in 1 month. One of Craig's crowns broke off while we were 7 hours away from home at a wedding (note to self: avoid Starburst candies), which was the same weekend he lost his wallet.

And don't get me started on work. Things like technology REPEATEDLY not functioning under deadlines to the point that my boss might think I am a pathological liar or that I have some other type of creepy pathology. Or just that I'm incompetent. I don't know what's worse.

I feel bad complaining about all of this, because it's such small potatoes compared to so many other things that could be going wrong in our lives.

Shame on me.