I don’t really believe in Karma, because it’s for hippies. But sometimes you really have to wonder. If there’s one thing I’ve been praying and hoping for is that our company makes it. So if you believe in something like Karma, that would mean it all has to balance out in the end. Some bad things have to happen to make up for it. Let’s say I’m getting more optimistic about the job. In the past two weeks:
- Bitter’s check engine light goes on. Looks like the throttle body. Her car has the same engine as mine, and I had to replace mine. 600 dollars. The throttle position sensor goes bad, and that’s not a replaceable part. You have to replace the whole body.
- Before we can get it in to the shop to even get it looked at, she gets rear ended by a fish truck while on her way to restock on fish for our freezer. The fish truck has insurance that doesn’t want to admit fault and pay up, even though it’s a rear end accident, and there’s no doubt as to who is at fault.
- I have two breakers in my box blow up and damage the bus bar. Turns out the dead rat smell emanating from the dishwasher was actually emanating from the electrical panel and wafting into the rest of the house. I have fixed this problem for now, but only after much aggravation.
- Today I come home and the animals have chewed through my gas grill line yet again. This is the second time. The first time there was fat that had dripped on the line. I can deal. This one I’ve been keeping clean. This time was just for spite. What’s worse is I forgot to turn off the tank, so I lost most of a 17 dollar tank of propane. If I ever catch any critter anywhere near my grill again, it better run before I find my air gun and fire up the smoker. That will settle the question of what’s for dinner.
- Go to do the dishes after dinner, and the sink backs up. This happened when I first moved in and I had to auger it out. There is very little that’s more disgusting in the universe than auguring a sewer drain. I worked for a plumber when I was a teenager, and I can still remember “Get your hands in there. Nothin’ in there that’s going to kill you,” ringing in my ears. There are septic bacteria based drain clearing products, but I have no idea how effective this is. I’d like to know before I buy myself some cholera in a can.
So if I end up losing my job in addition to all this, seriously, screw the hippies and their Karma.
I used the bacteria based “septic safe” drain cleaner once last year. I did a respectable job, but the manual method seemed to be better.
We’ve got the problem of having a lift station moving our sewage from house to septic tank. Got stuck with buying a new pump for that last year. I paid extra for the super-heavy duty-will last for years-never breaks down on the weekend pump, but probably only got the cheap Harbor Freight model.
What kind of crazy car has a Throttle Position Sensor you can’t replace?
Praying for you and your family, and all the families out of work.
What is the real unemployment number now? Not the fake-don’t-count-people official number, but the real estimate of people looking and needing work who can’t find a job.
@dustydog
13.5 million, of which 6.1 million have been unemployed for more than half a year.
My check engine light in my truck came on in 2003 when I had 82,000 miles on it. The light burned out in 2010 with 182,000 miles on it.
This isn’t karma, this is life. Look at what you wrote and add 4 sons, with baseball, broken bones, football, music lessons, college educations and a job that only renews every 2 years.
That my friend is called manhood! Welcome to it!
Geez. And I thought it only happened in threes.
But, hey, clear a drain for $0.62: http://offthemapdash.blogspot.com/2011/03/make-it-yourself-drain-de-clogger.html
Go under the sink and pull the trap, then clean it, much easier that fishing all that crap from above…..
It’s past the trap… I tried plunging it, and I could hear gurgling in the vent. The stop up is in the main line heading across the slab and into the main sewer line that heads to the street.
I’m a firm believer in some type of “karma”. Basically, if you’re good to other people, over time, people will help you out, when bad things happen to you. If you treat others rotten, others will come to dislike you, and you will find little help when bad things happen to you.
This type of “karma” doesn’t keep bad things from happening, and it doesn’t cause good things to happen (except in what others choose to do to you).
In any case, I wish you luck! I’m not sure what I could do for you, beyond that, although I wish I had the means lend some sort of helping hand!
Thanks. I’ll live though. Minor setbacks.
We have used the bacteria-based (urea) drain cleaner. It’s ok but not confidence inspiring. Nothing beats a 50-foot snake chucked-up to a hand-drill with the trigger pinned to spin the sucker for 20-minutes. I wish I had a cutting-head on my snake to trim the roots but you have to call Roto-Rooter for the big guns… My wife prefers to nuke the drains with Liquid Plumr or Drano – whatever Costco has on-hand.
The clog is likely pretty far in there, so I’m skeptical I can get enough drano down there.
You have an exceedingly narrow view of what “karma” is.
It could loosely be tied into what is otherwise known as the “golden rule” and what is more scientifically known as reciprocal altruism. These dynamics form the basis of free-trade capitalism.
So when you say “Karma is for Hippies” you are correct only in the narrowest sense of the term.
My take on “karma” is a more pervasive view of “what goes around comes around” aka “reap what you sow”: you may not see the connection between cause and effect, but it’s still there.
Beyond that, I learned to just take everything in stride, deal with one crisis at a time, and just don’t let anything bug you. You’re not dead, so just keep on doing what needs doing. I’ve been dead and got thru that, so everything else is pretty easy in comparison.
A whole jug of drano doesn’t last long around here, it’s just enough for each bathroom tub (2) and sink (2). Be generous!
We had to get a Roto-Rooter guy out here to work his 200-foot snake with a cutting head, and clear roots that were under building #8 when a downstairs unit backed-up and flooded a bathtub. He had the cool video end-unit to look-see. The roots were at 120-feet in. My 50-foot Home Depot snake is only good for the drains until they reach the mains.
“Karma” is actually a very specific Hindu-thing way beyond what goers around comes around – and relating to the Caste-System and a person’s specific station in life – it’s who they are and all they will ever be. Kinda like: once a plumber always a plumber and married to a plumber’s daughter your kids and grandkids will be plumbers… I kinda wrote my thesis on that.
Dharma is more like, “what goes around…etc”.
I bought a plumbers’ snake when when I observed that I could get one for the cost of a couple of jugs of drano. And I’ve used it twice so far, so make of that what you will.