we are experiencing technical difficulties on a house-wide scale. repairs need to be made and evil spirits exorcised. perhaps some replacements need to be considered. why? the appliances are acting as if possessed. and they are reveling in their evilness since we can't afford to pay for repairs or replacements, which, of course, figures. it is a machine's prerogative to begin its spiral downward right when you can least afford it.

and it always begins with little things. in our case i'm almost sure we have some little poltergeist going around and zapping various machines just for grins and giggles. it started with my usually well behaved computer. first the cd burner sporadically wouldn't open if we put in a cd that already had stuff on it (like the cd i keep my writing backed up on). we figured out that we can get the cd out when we reboot and catch it as the machine is starting back up. this avoided a dreaded call to tech support (dell tech support used to rock, now it's the most frustrating thing in the universe next to be left on hold for time without end only to be disconnected before someone picks up).

then we discovered the vcr was adding it's own little contribution to the tapes we were recording: a lovely white line across the top with an added crackling sound just for effect. half a dozen tapes had to be tossed. it doesn't happen with every tape or even with every recording on the same tape, which, of course, makes it that much harder to manage. we have part of a season of one show that's perfectly fine, then the rest of it has the line and crackle. we never know when it will hit. with the vcr we are pretty much stuck. there is no tech support, no warranty, and we're just too broke to replace or repair it.

then my computer's cd-rom decided to join into the action and now it skips when playing music. the only solution? don't play music on the computer. shortly after this little development, the other computer decided to develop a hum. sometimes a reboot gets rid of it, sometimes it doesn't. yes, it's getting time to call the dreaded tech support.

then there's the stereo. it began as a little glitch that occurred only occasionally and now occurs every hour or so. for no reason whatsoever, the cd tray will just decide to open when we're playing cd's. sometimes it makes it through all 5, and sometimes it only makes it through a song or two. it can decide to stop playing and open at any time without provocation or warning. and this is another machine that no longer has a warranty to cover repairs.

yesterday finally clinched the whole idea that the electronics in this house are gradually being possessed.

somehow my machine lost a whole day. all day yesterday it was telling me that it was the 28th. and i believed it. so imagine my surprise when my writing journal entries came up for the 29th. (yes, i need to get back into an environment where it's harder to lose track of time. heck, even having hubby working would help.) i spent over an hour trying to correct the problem, only to go to a board and have it posting as the 30th (this was obviously after midnight). apparently the writing journal was correct. i dived into a chat to verify it, then went and reset everything back to the correct dates. so, now i'm on the same day as the rest of california.

i'm telling you, the little poltergeist has got to go.