Belly Up, Times Two

Well, it had to happen sooner or later this winter but did it have to happen on one of the warmest days we've had so far?  I actually managed to slip on the ice in a parking lot on a day that got almost up to 60 degrees.  Yeah, I know.....how did I manage that?  I went to a store EARLY in the morning, that's how, when it was still cold out.  I was hurrying from the car to the store's entrance and saw a wet spot in the pavement but didn't think anything of it, since it wasn't standing water.  What I DIDN'T know was that it was black ice.  I walked right over it and next thing I knew, I was flat on my back with my feet up in the air.  Yup, I'd "come a cropper" so quickly that I didn't even have time to tense up.  I guess that's a good thing since it most likely precluded me from sustaining any injuries other than bruises to elbow, hip, and pride.  For once, those heavily padded "Van Rossum hips" came in handy.  I tell you, it's like wearing pillows strapped on both hips.  No wonder my mom, who has a similar physique, is 98-years old, and has taken numerous falls, has never broken a hip.

Got me to thinking, though, about how the term "come a cropper" came into use.  Seems that the top of a horse's rear is called a "croup" or "crupper", in slang.  Back in the day when many traveled by horseback, the expression, "come a cropper" sprang up to mean that you fell off your horse.  Nowadays, it just means you took a tumble.

We had something else that went belly-up from our household this week.  Would you believe that our big hi-def TV gave up the ghost last night?  We'd been enjoying some TV shows and then I headed up to get ready for bed.  When I called down to the family room to tell the Commander that the dog had been bathroomed, he said he was trying to get the TV to turn on.  I couldn't imagine why, since it seemed like he should be turning it off.

Apparently, he had gone to turn OFF the TV but before he could even press the button, he heard a "pop" and the TV turned off on it's own.  Oh, oh......that didn't sound good.  Now it wouldn't come on at all.  The only thing happening were four red lights blinking when he'd attempt to turn it on.  Wouldn't you know that it was 2 days over the 1-year warranty?  But never fear........for once, we had purchased an extended warranty (since our previous big-screen TV had died just past ITS warranty).

Today, we went out and purchased a slightly smaller TV, which we had planned to do anyway for our bedroom, and also set up a service call with the folks who take care of our maintenance plan.  If they can't fix it, we'll get a new TV as a replacement free of charge.  In the meantime, the Commander set up the new TV on a makeshift stand in front of our other one so that we can watch the Super Bowl on Sunday (can't miss those ads, now can we?)

I told the Commander that, with the luck we seem to have with these TVs, we should just plan to purchase new ones ever year, especially if the prices continue to come down the way they have been doing.  He just looked at me.  I could tell that I was skating on thin ice.