Whack-A-Mole Life

by Cathy

We've all played a game of Whack-A-Mole at least once, right?

You know...that money-sucking game where you're handed a Flintstones-like, padded club and hover warrior-style over the six holes in a machine that unpredictably pop out ugly mole heads in a random fashion? The objective is to smack each one of them back into their holes each and every time. If you can handle that easy task, you win.

We never seem to hit every single one of those little rodents, do we? As much as we try and go balls-to-the-wall assassin on their tiny little asses, there inevitably is one or two we miss.

As I discovered the other day, life is a lot like playing Whack-A-Mole. There are a million little fires that need to be put out; most on a daily basis which go unnoticed and others that weigh us down over a longer period of time.  After all, if it's not one thing, it's another, right?

Last week, I felt I had a particularly gangbusters day after snagging a brand new, not-yet-out-of-the-box laser printer from Craigslist for just half the cost. I found a great bargain for a much needed item and I was thrilled. I couldn't wait to go home and install it.

Here's how my night went:

- Oh no! I can't install the printer drivers on the Mac without the administrator's (Joe's) username and password. After much unsuccessful Googling on how to bypass it, and some major digging and recollecting on Joe's end to remember the info, we got it.

- Oh no! I don't have an A-B USB cable (not included) to connect the printer to the computer! After much digging in a giant crumpled bag of jumbled cables, wires, extension cords, weather stripping, phone chords, vacuum bags, old TV antennas (what?), and a slew of non-descript cables...eureka! I found one.

- Oh no! The printer drivers are not showing up as a printing option on screen! "Is the printer plugged in?" came an annoyed response from Joe, who was in the living room lifting weights and watching television. Oops. OK, I was tired and frustrated. Finally, success!

- With that behind me, it was bathtime for the kids. I went to run the bathwater when I saw that I left the mop sitting in a bucket of bleach from yesterday's housecleaning efforts. After draining out the bleach, I placed the bucket on my BRAND NEW dark gray bathroom rug. "Oh no!" I screamed, and snatched it off only to see the faint outline of a bleach ring on my beautiful, plush rug. I dropped everything, ran it under clear water and threw it in the washing machine, all while screaming one expletive after another, much to the chagrin of my family .

- With the girls' baths situated, I came back to the computer to check email for the night. Now that I had a printer, my home/office set-up was FINALLY complete!! I began typing a reply to an email but the words I typed were all strung together inonelongrunonsentencelikethisone and I couldn't understand why. Until I realized that the space bar apparently spaced out and went to the local bar. It was totally out of commission. I tried unplugging the keyboard, I tried restoring the default settings, I tried Googling it, I tried rebooting the computer, I tried everything. Nada. My keyboard decided that tonight of all nights, it would have its last hoorah.

Well, guess what. I had my last hoorah of the night as well.

I couldn't believe the string of annoying, frustrating little issues that consistently and persistently (much like those annoying little moles) popped up as soon as the one before it was taken care of. I finally had to lay down my fighting club for the night, throw my hands up in defeat and surrender to life's proverbial moles - but only for today.

Tomorrow...we play again.