My Lucky/Unlucky Day

“Yesterday started out on an up note. Climbed into the old new Geomobile and set off to work. Not much traffic. I felt lucky.

The two-lane road I need to travel in the middle of the trip was blocked by police. I had to take the long detour. Unlucky!

On a side street, I got behind a trash truck collecting recycling. Unluckier!

Finally got to work. The day passed uneventfully. Lucky.

After work, I set out to take a walk in the park. Lucky.

The detour was still in place, so had to go the long way 'round. Unlucky!

Ran into long traffic jams on the detour. Unluckier!

Finally got to the parking lot and found a space. Some jerk had crawled up on my back bumper and wouldn't move so I could back into the space. I put on the brake and took the Geomobile out of gear. He backed up and I got into the space (The $hit could have gone around me, but that would have been the easy thing to do).

Finally got walking and felt good. Lucky.

The creek and the woods felt inviting. No rain in the forecast. Lucky.

At 3.5 miles, I turned around to head back. I felt really good. Lucky.

After about three quarters of a mile I heard what sounded like thunder. But it could have been a plane. No rain in the forecast. Must be a plane. Lucky.

A new noise greeted my ears. Sounded like rain pelting leaves. Rain was landing in the creek. Unlucky.

Valley Green Inn and the horse warming shed were just ahead. If I could reach them in time I could duck under the shed. Lucky.

Before I got to the shed, the rain came down hard. Unlucky.

Finally I got to the shed and ducked under it with other hikers, runners, and bikers. Lucky.

I took stock. The rain was pouring down but I was under the shed. But I was soaked through. Lucky/Unlucky.

The rain slackened and I headed out. I was already soaked, so it didn't matter anymore. Unlucky.

On the way back I passed other runners/bikers/walkers who had been caught in the rain. After awhile, it was like a wet tee shirt contest. Lucky.

Finally got back to the Geomobile and drove home. Nothing bad happened. Lucky.

And this morning, another pound off. Luckier!”

“LOL......sounds like an altogether lucky wonderful day!!!”

“Aside from the traffic and dipshyt drivers, sounded pretty good. beats seeing someone under a train!”

“Now me, I go through life in a blur. Stuck in traffic, look at trees, sky, people. Stuck in rain, look at trees, sky, people. If something really special happens or I survive a close call, I thank God. Do I really believe in luck? I don't know.”

“Treebeard, that was so weird, because I had watched ER yesterday morning, and a resident who was having problems with his boss, was hit by a train on the show. They were unable to save him, and it was very disturbing to me, even though it was fiction. Then I read your post about the guy under the train, and it was weird.”

“So it rained when you went for a hike? How odd.”

“Yeah, can you imagine such a thing?”

“Lyndy - was that the one where thery're trying to page the intern, only to notice that everytime they page him, the guy on the tables beeper would go off and they didn't reconginze that it was the intern?”

“Yeah. As they were bringing the buy in on a stretcher, someone remarks that the guy will need a new face if they can save his life. I was thinking, "How in the world can I handle something like this when I am a nurse?"

Sorry Twinks to mess up your thread.”

“Yep,that's the one! ER used to be great back then. That one put my brain in the blender for a couple of days!! From what I understand, you learn to deal with it, Lyndy. Good luck to ya!”

“Oops, this is Geobeet's thread, not Twinks. Sorry Geobeet, go back to your lucky day. If you think lucky you will be lucky, how's that for philosophy.”

“The invasion of the threads, starring LyndyS.”

“I was just funnin' ya LyndyS!”

“No such thing as lucky Geo..it all happened the way it was suppose to happen. If that road hadn't been blocked you could have had an accident or mishape..it was there for a reason.

That is my take for whatever it is worth!”

“Like stikmon and the Legion of Doom???”

“Legion of Doom?”

“Um...just one question...how does Geobeet in a wet teeshirt contest qualify as "Lucky"???”

“Fritzie, yer losin' it!

I got to watch the wet tee shirt contest.”

“Yeah CG, after the latest Harry Potter flick came out stikmon went into Lord Moldywart mode and drove everybody crazy.”

“aaaah...some how I missed that.

HEY..Get this..a friend of mine just called..no joke. We went to a play last night (a murder mystery) on her way home last night she gets to the main road leading to her house (she lives in the sticks) and there are cop cars every where..they tell her she can't go up that road they have an incident with a man and a gun. So she decides to go around the back way..she is able to get to her drive that way but when she got there..there were cops everywhere!!! She made it home without incident and there was nothing on the news. What if she had come through earlier...she could of been shot...what if the cops hadn't been there? Yaddie Yaddie Yaddie...!!!

I think she just wanted to solve a mystery on her own!”

“You sure that was yesterday, Geo?”

“Funny CG. I once went to an opening night at our community theater. Usually I have three or four glasses of champagne and sit around talking to people, but that night I didn't want to talk and didn't feel like drinking champagne. I had just one glass and left.

On the way home I came to a DUI roadblock. I greeted the officer. He asked if I had anything to drink. I said one glass of champagne. How long ago? A half hour. He said good night, I said good night, and drove home.

What if? Wow!”

“We couldn't be that lucky....”

“LOL...you must had an angle shining on you...you think?”

“That thought has occurred to me, more than once.”

“And this morning, another pound off. Luckier!

Way to go gramps. Only 200 lbs to go before you're a healthy weight.”

“That would take me down to 52 Sherlock. Like you had a clue!”

“What happened to Mutt, anyway? A couple of years ago he was informative, not insulting. Now he just goes out of his way to slice at people, in an anonymous way of course, since he is not courageous enough to meet us all and then say these things.”

“Must be unhappy with life...you know take it out on everyone else type theory.”

“Mugwump!”

“Copied and Pasted From the Milestone Day For Mapleleaf and Treebeard thread:

"Hey, thanks for all the good wishes. Too bad Maple has school tonight. I have a Boy Scout meeting, so I guess we can celebrate some other time..."
Treebeard

Oh shoot, now I have to call the tow squad and cancel the dang truck!"
Geobeet
04:01:36 PM
01/15/04

Ok, Geo! You came too close with this one. I had a string of luck last night unparalleled, even by myself! I set out for the scout meeting in Brooklyn at about 6:30PM. Went over the Verrazano Bridge. No problem. Cold, as you well know, but the kids and I secure and fine in the car. We get off the highway and onto 4th Ave and suddenly, I hear and feel what is inevitably a flat tire. It was the rear driver's side tire. Fortunately, a few blocks away was one of those 'flats fixed' joints. I u-turn around the center median and pull right up in front. It turns out the problem is on the sidewall in a non-fixable spot. So, he had a nice used tire with good tread and sold it to me for thirty bucks. He finishes up expediently and we resume our journey to the meeting.

We are twenty minutes behind schedule, but no biggie.
We ran our obstacle course with the scouts and had a blast.

Left for home around 9PM. I get down to 4th Ave, which is the main thoroughfare that will take me to the highway to Staten Island. I stop for gas and, let me tell you, it was getting cold and windy at this point. Rosy cheeked Treebeard gets back in car and turns up the heat. Proceed down 4th and turn down to entrance ramp that will take me up onto an elevated stretch of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway known as the Gowanus. As soon as I reached the top, I felt the front passenger's side tire go flat. This highway is rather high up and stopping to change a tire here in icy weather would be near suicidal. So, I hobbled along on it to the next exit about 3/4 mile down the road. I get off and pull into the parking lot of a Costco. Now, this is in an industrial part of Brooklyn, barren, and two blocks from the water. I called AAA, because the idea of jacking up that car and trying to get frozen lugnuts off by myself in that wind was not desirable. The wind about 20-25 mph and literally rocking the car. I stepped out and my kids laughed at me because a gust caught me and made me look like th stay-puft marshmallow man momentarily. AAA came in about 20 minutes and changed it. Thank goodness for power tools. He told me there was a twenty-four hour tire shop about 4 blocks from there. I opted to go get it done because I didn't want to brave those winds that I knew were going to be fierce on the bridge to the Island on that donut tire.

I got there and no one answered when I banged on the door. So, I left and decided to make it home and deal with the tire on Friday. I got another block away and the rear pasenger tire went flat. This can't be happening, I said. So, I u-turned around and went to bang HARDER on this guy's door. I needed help big time! This guy came to the door and basically turned me away in Spanish (not sure what he said). All I know is he wasn't going to help me. So, I hobbled down 4th Ave a little more to see if one of those tire places nearby were open. All closed. Figuring that I probably damaged the tire even more, I opted for stopping and calling AAA again. I wanted to get towed back to SI and get home already. The guy on the phone told me that there is a 24 hour place back near where the meeting was. I wasn't too thrilled about it, but when he told me that I would have to pay the mileage (over three miles) plus tolls on the bridge for all his axles as well as mine, I said, take me back to the tire shop. Bought two more tires for 50 bucks combined. Finally, on the road and back home at about 12:45 AM. Let me add, the kids were real troopers throughout. But, man I was chilled to the bone.

Then, I get to work this morning and the lock on our door was broken. Didn't get inside for an hour and a half. Matt, if the site crshes today, feel free to blame me.”

“Wow, you had more flat tires in one night than I have had in five years.”

“Look at it this way treeman, it was still cheaper than getting towed by the police, or was it?”

“Cost me 100 bucks cash for the whole, thrilling, fun-filled evening. F-ing bargain, eh?”

“Yeah, but you at least got tires out of it, and the car pound fine and fee was almost twice that with no tires.”

“Chili, these were the tires that came with the car 2 1/2 years, and about 35,000 miles ago. The tread was still pretty good on them. I have been all over the place on them. For them all to go in that time allotment, I am figuring the extreme cold must have somehow played a role...”

“Tree,
Don't mean to be the barer of bad news, but you shouldn't have bought the new tires. Nothing good ever comes out of buying new tires. I’ve blown head gaskets, blown differentials, burned up coil packs, and had a tree limb fall on my car all within a month or so of buying new tires. Hope you have better luck than me.”

“True dat, Geo!”

“Zac, when you are cold and have kids in the car...


...well, fill in the blanks!”

“All I can say is:

Viva la South!”

“It sounds like somebody worked your tires for you. That, or they're old and its cold-related.

Laurel is having a similar day today. She's banged her head against the table hard enough to knock stuff off three times now.”

“Tree,
I can't blame you. Maybe my luck wore off onto you. When did all this take place, because I got rear-ended last night on my way home from work around 5pm? Maybe the black cloud jumped downstate when it was through with me.”

“I think it's the latter, Treebait. Sorry poor little Laurel is having a rough one. Maybe Mommy has some treats planned???”

“In Brooklyn. To and from my scout meeting. Hey, all I was trying to do was serve my community, dammit!!”

“that'll teach ya!”

“Keep that black cloud away from me.”

“Hey, look at it this way, not only did you get to serve your community, you also got to contribute to the economy.”

“When I heard on the radio that the ferry that was shut down for yesterday afternoon and today wasn't the one that would strand you I thought "good", no bad luck on the anniversary.”

“OOGA BOOGA!
LOL
:D”

“lol Thanks for the good thought, Peps!

Chili, keep that thought for the next time someone calls me a commie, left wing, rotten, cowardly, snivelling, pretentious, whiny, liberal piece of dog meat!”