The Red Ring of Death has taken another soul. The wife called in last night stating that upon trying to use the XBOX360 to play some music for the children, the machine produced nothing but flashing red lights.

I was really starting to think that I was going to get away without this issue. I have been putting the ole’ 360 through its paces with Halo 3 over these last five weeks, but to have it just suddenly break… man, that is cruddy. And that is exactly how it happens. I know of a few personal cases and many, many thousands reported online. Everything seems fine, and then the thing just quits working one day.

It doesn’t seem to even be tied to any sort of abuse. I have two friends that had the problem about the same time. One of these friends is very neat. The house is always clean, no kids using the system, and it sits on a hard surface with good ventilation and never moves. The other friend has many children that often go bonkers over the machine. It is very likely that the dog peed on it a few times (after he chewed up all the cords) and the inside of the machine might very well reveal traces of pancake batter and yogurt.

Both machines died around the same time. Now mine has gone to join them. I guess I’m glad it happened within the new 3-year warranty period, but no Halo for a few weeks makes Bill sad.

Another thing that makes me sad is being late for church all the time. This past Sunday, I was in such a hurry that I executed a textbook smash-through-garage-door maneuver in order to shave a few seconds off my time.

I hope you enjoyed that added bit of drama. I put it in there just for you! The truth is that I mistimed the door opening by a second. It is one of those habitual tasks that just got the wires crossed. I have the door timed inside my brain. I usually look back there to make sure it is open, but that is always just ceremonial. I’m not really paying attention to the door.

Well this time I didn’t look, and I did catch the very bottom of the garage door with the very top of the van. Fortunately there was no body damage to the vehicle. It did smash up taillight above the rear windshield. The garage door itself was mangled only slightly, and I was able to use additional mangling to get it back into working order. You’d probably have walk up to it to tell it was damaged, so I don’t foresee us fixing or replacing it any time soon. I should probably repair the van just so that molding doesn’t fall off on the highway and land me in a lawsuit.

Just when I thought my life wasn’t interesting…