Three Things

Thing 1: In mid-September of last year I got a new computer in anticipation of my imminent departure from UMW. It was a 13″ Macbook Pro, and my first retina screen—I’m a fan. Two weeks later while visiting BYU I dropped that computer and cracked the screen. It was a heartbreaker.

That's no glitch

It wasn’t covered under warranty, so I was pretty much screwed.

Thing 2: On the day of my departure for Italy in early October I was tasked with getting myself and two cats up to NYC from Virginia by 8:00 PM to catch a flight to Milan. I planned on leaving at about 10 AM so I would be able to meet my sister in Long Beach, Long Island to give her my car and get a ride to JFK. At 9:30 AM while caging up the cats I discovered Clyde was missing. WTF! Cogdog and I spent the next two hours searching hi and low to no avail. At 12:30 I decided to bite the bullet and leave to NYC with a huge hole in my stomach.


Luckily no one is more clutch than Shannon Hauser, she found the cat, and took care of him for the next month and a half until we figured out how to get him to Italy.

Thing 3: As I was waiting in the airport security trip after a haggard, rain-drenched drive from Virginia to NYC after leaving our cat behind I realized that I lost my tooth. WTF! The day before I finally got my implant after six months of dental work. I was racing against the clock so I would be able to use my dental insurance through UMW, and I got it done right before the wire. And then, it must have fallen out while I was eating pancakes and sausages in an airport diner, and I must have swallowed it. As they say on the internet: #FML!

The whole theory of things happening in threes seems to apply in this case. Things were already crazy enough for me in early Fall with the move to Italy, but adding these three things took a bit of a psychic toll at the time. None worse than the cat, though.

So, I write this post after having finally fixed all three things. In late November we flew Shannon to Italy with the cat. That was the most important one for me, the bava leaves no cats behind!

Almost a month ago I finally got the tooth my dentist sent to me back in October implanted here in Trento. That was a relief because I wasn’t sure if in the intervening 6 months I had damaged the implant’s stem.

And just yesterday I finally got my computer screen fixed. This in many ways was the one that took the greatest daily toll on my life. I was effectively working with half a 13″ computer monitor for almost 8 months. I got used to it, but that was simply by building in a series of extra steps to constantly move my web browser around the cracked screen. But it is very nice to have my full screen back, even if it was punishing on the wallet.

So three major problems that happened around the time of my coming to Italy have now all been sorted. So, time to deal with the latest breakage, my glasses.

But I have my eyes on a new style, and I am pretty excited to embrace the brave new world of big, rimless glasses again!

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6 Responses to Three Things

  1. Maha Bali says:

    Hey Jim – wow! Did NOT know about all this stuff…glad it’s all working out. And who would believe that you had to work with a broken laptop screen all this time? (i know u don’t carry a smartphone but you may have noticed that almost EVERYONE’S cell phone screen is broken somewhere. It’s like they make em so breakable u don’t even need ur kids or pets to break em; but a screen is worse).

    Speaking of broken glasses, when we lived in Houston my husband and I broke our glasses within a week of each other. His are a bigger deal coz he can’t see without em but mine became a big deal coz i was the one with the driver’s license and the day we went to pick up our new (well 3rd hand) car, my regular glasses hadn’t been replaced yet so I wore prescription sunglasses..at around sunset time! It was ridiculous. Are you imagining this? Wearing sunglasses at night so I could see clearly? Lol

    Looking forward to seeing you with the new glasses inshallah

    • Reverend says:

      Maha,
      I have a confession to make, I got a cellphone in October [bows head]. In fact, it helped me get through the pain of breaking my computer screen. But out of all the things, I think the broken glasses may be the most debilitating. Like your husband, I am blind without them—add to that they are bifocals (or progressives as they say 🙂 ) so I am doubly screwed! My current broken glasses are tricky because they still work with some crazy glue, but break again every 4 or 5 days. I am stuck like this for another two weeks until my new glasses are done, but I have the fear of loses the one lens and having to wear a patch for #oer16 🙂

  2. Well, hello ZIO Jim!

    It was a bunch of things for you all at one time, but it is a good thing you got them all fixed, plus Shannon brought you the cat.

    But I was wondering, can I get a special order one of the Reclaim Hosting shirt made just for me in my size? It is the 18″ standard doll size one.

    Well, arrivederci, ZIO Jim.

    • Reverend says:

      A doll shirt, hmmm. That is something we will have to look into. Although we are still gonna charge you full price 🙂

  3. What about the joy of struggling to get the cell phone to work and the multiple visits to the TIM store? I’m sure your Italian has improved so much now you could go tell that unhelpful store worker explicitly what he can do with his attitude haha.
    Maybe one of these days I’ll blog about that little trip I took to see you all 🙂

    • Reverend says:

      I tend to block that one out, I try and remain positive about all things Italian, at least until my citizenship is official 🙂 Brian Lamb will be our second guest in Italy later this week, so might be a good time to revisit Verona and Venice 🙂

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