Another unplanned expense

It's hot. It's humid. Some storms came through that did a little to clear the air yesterday, but I was only able to see about a dozen of the brightest stars last night. Still, that's something. And I knew that, in a few hours, someone else would be looking at these same stars. That was something, too.

But that's not why I am writing.

No. Apparently it is not enough that my computer is dying and needs to be replaced. No, now my computer chair also needs to be replaced.

It started Wednesday night. I was wrapping things up for the night in the sweltering heat when I heard a crack and the chair seemed to shift a bit. I did a quick inspection, felt around under the seat, found nothing out of the ordinary.

Yesterday morning I sat down to begin trying to coax a few minutes of functionality out of my PC. My act of sitting was rudely interrupted by a brittle crack, like celery snapping, and a sudden lurch to the right.

I picked up the chair. Two of the five legs had snapped off. The pattern of their breakage was identical, leading me to suspect the presence of a weak alignment of molecules resulting from the way the plastic flowed in the injection molding process. The heat, I am sure, did not help, nor did the loads the chair was subjected to...for the last eight months.

My last chair, a cheap little task chair, lasted five years before it gave up the ghost. It was replaced with a carefully selected, special-ordered chair. Which broke after eight months.

I doubt the Gorilla Glue I'm using to repair this chair will last for more than a few seconds under stress, but we'll see. Whatever. Sam's Club has a chair with metal legs for about $89, $10 more than the chair that just broke. I think I'll just get one of those and see how long it lasts.