Like a ‘Price Is Right’ Cadillac Without an Engine

You know you’re not having a good day when you  go down to the laundry room to retrieve your clothes from the dryer and  you discover that someone (that old gaga fart from the 3rd floor) has opened your dryer at least a  half hour before time was due to elapse, and  she ‘forgets’ to shut it, thereby allowing the drying time to tick down to zip. She does this a lot.  I can never quite pin it on her, but I KNOW it’s her …What are you doing opening my dryer in the first place, you old ditz ?!!  It’s not like you can’t tell it’s in use. Laundry basket on top, warm rumbling coming from the machine… and seven other machines empty and idle. Old age is no excuse for downright rude, insane and disruptive behaviour! Not to mention the health risk you created by forcing me to  wear damp clothing  outside in October… because  gee, I hadn’t anticipated laundry sabotage today!  I want security cameras! And guards…with Tazers!… and some big mean dogs on patrol!  Then, just to add some nuts to my banana spit, I  discovered that the damp pile of clothes that I had just hauled up to my apartment, had an unusual smell coming from them. This continues to baffle me. They smell worse now than they did  before I washed them…much worse. Did the old biddie hurl a stinking potion onto them too?   It gets worse.   I had a few minutes to kill before leaving for the movie (‘Blindness’ day), so I thought I’d try out the HRM voting site on the Net.  Yes, it’s the first day of electronic voting in HRM.  I’ve been feeling all happy and victorious about accessible voting for weeks now,  ever since I heard that HRM was testing electronic voting for  the Halifax Municipal election.  Woa! Not too quick with the democratic process happy dance!  My joy fizzled out when I got onto the HRM voting web site start page and discovered that the security ‘descramble’ of letters and numbers DID NOT HAVE AN AUDIO OPTION!!! Good going guys. What are people with screen reading software supposed to do?  It’s like winning a big honking Cadillac on The Price Is Right and discovering that the car has no engine. Sheesh!  Being ever resourceful, I asked my neighbour to come look at my computer monitor and read the scramble for me.   She was ‘visiting’ anyway, at least, just long enough to complain about the ‘thunking’ noise against our adjoining wall.  “Oh that”, I said. “It’s just Opal getting settled in her recliner.”  I apologized and promised to move my dog’s favourite chair from against the wall,. I  gave my neighbour a cookie as she left, shaking her head and muttering all the way back to her lair.    Sigh. Yes, my dog has her own recliner. But it’s VERY old and I WAS going to toss it out back in July…except Opal wouldn’t let me.