There is no situation so dire that, by dint of application of the least degree of stupidity, it cannot be made infinitely worse.

Which, lengthy as it is, is the title of this post. Let's take it in chronological order, shall we?

About 4 weeks ago, my chair suddenly decided to quit working. I had no idea why, and we took it into the shop for repairs. Shop says $200, give or take a couple. It needs new batteries. So there it sat until last Wednesday, when funds were available. Picked it up, and on Friday, I wended my way to the grocery store, about a mile distant, and a trip I can normally make several times in a day with no problem, and no need to recharge the batteries. About 2/3rds of the way there, the chair started a mild version of the complete non-working that sent it to the shop in the first place. First application of stupidity - I continued on to the store, instead of immediately calling my then-available DS to come and get me. The chair quit working entirely again, in the store, in the middle of the way. I got a very accommodating stock clerk to push me to a wall outlet, thinking that somehow the batteries hadn't been fully charged. After half an hour or so, the chair was working again. I came home, with some problems, but not anything serious. However, I did notice, at the store when the clerk started to push me, when I moved the tab that controls the engagement of the electric brake, making it possible for the chair to free-wheel, that the tab was so hot I could barely touch it. Aha! A symptom! Something in there is overheating, causing it to bind up, effectively stopping the chair in its tracks. Now we come to a major application of that same stupidity. On Saturday, I realized that I didn't have the 5 lb. bag of sugar in the pantry that I thought was there, and therefore a run for sugar for my coffee was vital! Half a block away from the little corner store that's only 5.5 longish blocks away, on the way back, the chair totally locked up. OK, it's a pleasant, if warm, afternoon. I'll just wait for it to cool down, and be on my way. Wrong. With sundown rapidly approaching, I was getting somewhat desperate, as DS was at work, and couldn't possibly get away. The man in front of whose house I was sitting, with whom I'm dimly acquainted, offered assistance. So I left the chair at his house, and he brought me home. The chair goes back to the shop tomorrow. MORE money I don't have.

I sat down Sunday evening with MS3, with the results posted previously. This morning I picked up MS3 again, and knit away happily. No problem, I thought... wrong again. I had finished a row, and was admiring the thing, as I am wont to do, and saw something that looked a bit odd, two rows back from where I was. Seems I had forgotten to do a yo. Knew there had to be something else as well, as the stitch count at the end of the row was correct. There was, a missed decrease, of course, but not at the same spot! I tried laddering down to the yo, which was the first one, and screwed it up royally. Frog. After getting all the stitches back on the needle, I was missing 5! I didn't want to screw with it for another 4.5 hours, so decided to frog all the way back to the lifeline.

Enter the stupidity factor. After setting the lifeline at the end of row 200, and Clue 3, I somehow forgot to do the next one, which I've been doing at the end of the WS row just before the edge beading row - every eight rows, in other words. I was going along so well, though, that I didn't bother with the next TWO either. So from row 227, where I noticed the error, I'm now back to row 201. There is a tiny mote of light in this tunnel, though, as the part from the previous post with which I wasn't happy is history in the frogging.

It is time to put aside the knitting for a couple of days at least.

I'm also having a recurrence of a health problem with which I shan't bore you, and is merely bothersome, as opposed to incapacitating in some way. I wish I could just put my entire life on hold until the planets realign more favorably, or the gods relent, or whatever it takes to get things back on an even keel. Since this isn't possible, I shall retreat into reading, and maybe even get some housework done. Maybe...

At least I've got the sugar to make lemonade from all these lemons.