The Monday to End All Mondays

Yesterday was a nightmare, and not the good kind.

After what I can safely say was one of the worst days I've ever had, I went home to relax and forget about the day's troubles, maybe with a drink. I never got around to that drink.

Upon my arrival I greeted Suz halfheartedly due to my complete lack of energy. That quickly changed as I discovered she was watching TV, and sound was only coming out of the right speaker. Three weeks to my big Halloween bash, and my Sony receiver, the first ever to have Dolby Digital and DTS surround processing, was shot!

Before I condemned the 5.1 receiver, I did a test. I hooked up the left speaker to the right side, and got sound. The speaker was functioning properly. I then put in a DVD to test the inputs. TV audio was screwed, but maybe it was just that input! Days of Thunder roared through 4 of the 5 speakers. The left one had nothing. I decided the receiver was shot, one year past its 5-year warranty.

Furious that my Sony STR-DE925 had become a $1,100 paper-weight, I drove off in my Talon. A good drive usually calms me down. When I came back I remembered that EHR had a 7.1 Sony home theatre receiver on sale for half price. It was 7:45, so I figured they were closed. I called them anyway, hoping for a recording that would tell me their hours. Instead I got a live person, and he declared that they were open until 9 p.m. to serve the late-night home-theatre crowd.

I jumped back in my Talon, with EHR as my destination. I begrudgingly bought the exact Sony receiver that was on sale and came home. I had spent 10 minutes buying it, and I hated every minute. I didn't want this receiver. And I didn't want to buy one in haste. Shopping for electronics is supposed to be a joyful occasion. I'm supposed to have butterflies in my stomach when I pick up my new technological wonder.

When I got home, I tried to hook everything up, and discovered, to my dismay, that this "technological wonder" did not have an optical input for DVD players! CD, yes. MiniDisc, yes. TV, yes. Satellite, yes. Tape - that's right TAPE DECK, yes. But not for DVD.

Except for that, things went smoothly, until I turned the TV on. My day just went from worse, to even more worse. No sound out of the left speaker. "What the HELL is going on here?!!" I screamed in my own head.

I plugged in a DVD, and got full surround sound from all 5 speakers. I pulled the audio cables from the Motorola cable box. They were fine. Conclusion? Motorola cable box, 11 months old, shot.

Coincidence? Both the reciever AND the cable box lost left audio at the same time. It's hard to believe, but apparently true.

At 12:18 a.m. I had dinner, exactly eleven hours since lunch.

I went upstairs to save a few pictures to my computer. I turned it on. Nothing. I pressed the button again. Nothing. Again. Nothing. 50 times, 50 nothings. Furious, but cautious not to wake Suz, I ripped the case open and began fiddling with wires. 40 minutes later, my computer booted. I saved a few pictures for today's blog, and maybe tomorrow's, then shut it off, putting an end to my wonderful day, and my ability to blog, possibly.

Stay tuned.