It's not easy owning a possessed appliance, especially one that decides to die.
Thankfully, we have a service agreement until 2015.
I wasn't thrilled, but I changed my schedule for Tuesday so I would be home when the repairman came.
As luck would have it, it's now after three. My first-grader and third-grader, Peter and Lizzy, are now off the bus. I still have to pick up my seventh-grader, Tom.
I was really hoping that the guy would have come and left by now. Because the dishwasher isn't working at all this might take a while. I was not relishing the idea of keeping the kids out of the kitchen while the crazed appliance was being fixed.
Thankfully it only takes a few minutes to pick up Tom. I decide to not even leave a note on the door.
Peter and Lizzy board the minivan. I make sure to bring snacks because experience has taught me that if I don't I will be hearing cries of starvation instead of whatever music we decide to play.
"Mommy, I want The Beatles," says Peter.
"You got it".
I enjoy the calm before the storm. The music is playing, the kids are eating. I can breathe.
I watch kids leave the middle school in droves.
I'ts hard to believe that I once went to this same school. I never thought I would end up living only six blocks from the house I grew up in.
Time is moving way too fast.
Peter starts yelling at Lizzy because she has finished her snack and now wants his.
"Come on guys, knock it off. Tom will be here soon, and then it's time to do homework. Lizzy, don't take Peter's snack."
"Sorry mommy," Lizzy says in a very sweet voice. She may be a special-needs child, but she knows how to turn on the charm.
Finally I see Tom walking toward the car. His huge backpack makes him look like a Nepalese Sherpa.
Greetings are exchanged. Tom's starts listing all that he has to do for homework. Peter is trying to get my attention, and Lizzy is singing in the background.
This is the portion of the day when everyone competes for my attention.
It is nice to have all my chicks with me again.
Finally home, I look around and see no repairman.
"I want to go outside."
"I know Peter, but we have to do homework first. OK honey?"
"I want to go outside."
"Yes. I know. Later, homework first."
"OK."
I check our messages, and wouldn't you know it, the repairman called. Oh no, I missed him.
I call the service department, and they let me know that he's running late and may not make it to my house until around 6.
Lizzy begins yelling about a princess lost in a forest.
She comes into my room angry that she can't get a fifth dress over her head.
I try to listen to the women at the other end of the phone while my 10-year-old daughter with multiple special needs is getting progressively louder.
I consider rescheduling the repair appointment since I know the later it gets, the harder it will be for Lizzy to keep it together.
Peter is also now standing next to me asking for a hug.
Tom comes in and starts talking to me about a song he found on his iPod, either not caring or not realizing that I'm on the phone trying to get my dishwasher fixed.
The woman from the service department comes back on the line and lets me know that the repair man will be at my house in about a half hour.
I look at the troops, and though I question whether they will make it, I decide to keep the appointment. I really don't want to go another day without my dishwasher.
I hang up the phone, and there's a knock at the door.
Wow, that was fast.
All four of us run to the door.
Hooray. The cavalry has arrived.
Wrong. It's just my mother.
She's holding a huge bag filled with some very cute stuffed bunny rabbits that her secretary thought Lizzy would love.
Lizzy is now very happy and starts running back and forth putting the bunnies in her room.
As my mom walks in, she informs me that the repair guy is right behind her.
Wow, did I get lucky? The repairman and my mom. Life is good. The dishwasher will get fixed, and my mom can always go outside and play with the kids so they won't get in the guy's hair.
I smile warmly and inform the repairman that this is the home of the possessed dishwasher.
I even let him know that I have a blog of the same name and let him know all the great suggestions my readers have given me if in fact the dishwasher is beyond repair.
He laughs and asks me when the problem started.
Then he tries the dishwasher.
And this is when the possessed appliance displays its true colors and starts. Instantly.
I stare in disbelief.
How can this be? The stupid box has not blinked, lit up, made even a whimper in four days.
I just tried it a few hours ago.
I'm now laughing and claiming that it is in fact a genuine possessed appliance.
Tom is now hystercially laughing as well, and I grab the phone and call my husband.
"Joe, the repairman is here and you are not going to believe this. The dishwasher is working just fine."
Joe is laughing on the phone, while Tom and my mom are hysterical.
I'm not sure what the repairman thought.
The repairman runs a few tests, and my mother comes in the kitchen.
"Mom I can't believe this, it works perfectly now. It's possessed."
"Kathy, you know a dishwasher can't really be possessed," my mother says, very seriously.
Now Tom is laughing even harder since the idea that my mother has taken this whole thing seriously is just too much for him.
"Oh, no mom. It's possessed. This thing did not work for four days. It's possessed."
"Well, it's working just fine now ma'am," says the repairman, not really quite knowing what to make of us all.
"This is impossible. This thing has not worked for three days."
"Well, sometimes these thing happen."
He leaves and I stare at the appliance for a while.
There is only one possible answer. The dishwasher reads the blog, and it was just toying with me.
