Down, down, down (my mood, that is)

Todaysfrase has been on an austerity budget since the true extent of the U.S. economic collapse began to reveal itself.  But for me -- as for many of you, I suspect -- sticking to this austerity budget has proven to be more difficult than I could have imagined.

No, I'm not alluding to all those fun things that I'd love to be spending money on this summer. Just breakdowns, and plenty of them.  Of all bizarre events, the chimney cap blew off the roof about six weeks ago (naturally, it turns out that, for reasons I can't quite understand, this was a custom chimney cap, meaning it cost twice as much and took about 4 weeks to order).  Then the hot water heater started malfunctioning, first by producing incredibly scalding water, then - once that process had managed to burn out various heating elements -- no hot water at all.  Those two repairs alone cost about $500.  

The hot water heater was enough to put me in a really pissy mood today.  But then I went to get gas at the only affordable place within about 45 minutes of Montauk (the Getty station, just west of East Hampton).  Not surprisingly, it's now so well know that this is the only affordable place to buy gas on the entire East End of Long Island that it's pretty much impossible to actually buy gas there.  I gave up on a line that was so long that it practically reduced me to tears and drove back to Montauk, where I paid $4.79.9 a gallon, about 35 cents more a gallon than I would have paid if I'd only had the stamina to stick to the line.

Is there any point to having an austerity budget if life will keep conspiring to defeat it?  On that note, Todaysfrase is heading for the movies this evening to see a French film that sounds great:  Tell No One (rotten tomatoes rating:  92%).  I'll let you know if it manages to save the day.