A Series of Unfortunate Events
Yes, Murphy has as of late made himself, or itself at home at our property. Do you know Murphy’s law? It’s more or less based on the idea that a series of unfortunate events will always happen at the worst times. I’ve previously lived by another version of it. One that Military Wives and I called “Military Murphy’s Law”. That one was “what can go wrong, will go wrong…during a deployment”. You see, this is why I myself constantly have it so ingrained in me to always be the Devil’s advocate. Always look for what could go wrong. Because for almost twelve years of our marriage to my husband Edward, this is what I had to do to survive.
For the twenty years my husband was military, we rarely lived near family, we rarely developed close relationships with friends in our area which meant I had to be my own version of self sufficient. Add a baby into the mix, and you’ve got an even bigger challenge. It means that rarely do I ask for help from others and if I do I feel incredibly bad about it. Unless I can pay them. I thoroughly dislike owing anyone.
The space heater started it
As of late, here on our property we’ve had a series of unfortunate events. I think it started around the time my space heater in my home office died in late November. A relatively cheap fix, no problem. Next, in early December, my husbands cv boot on his truck went out. Thankfully, because we are very frugal and have almost no debt we began paying off the repair quickly….until that is Murphy showed up not even two weeks later.
This time he struck the garage. Or to be more exact, the garage heater. The timing was impeccable. The heater died right in the middle of a streak of -40 degree temperatures. Perfect! For about two days we had to keep the interior door open from the garage to the house so that the pipes in the garage would not freeze. If those had frozen we would have lost our water coming through the house, and most likely we would have had a flood in our basement. No bueno there.
So at this point, repairs are just about paid off on the truck, now Sourdough fuel needs about $400 for the garage heater but we’re good because we have a plan. A plan that can tackle any series of unfortunate events. Okay, lets do this.
It’s a little bit shocking
Umm, until Saturday morning when I’m taking a shower, I reach for my Matcha Hemp Hydrating Cleanser near the showerhead, and I get shocked. Not a huge shock. More like what happens when you stick your tongue to a 9-volt. But this time its on my fingers. Curious. I’ve never been shocked in the shower before. I touch it again. Yup, it’s definitely shocking me! Interesting. Okay, so I begin touching the door. Anything? No. How about the shower control knob. YES, now that shock definitely had a bite to it. Umm, okay. I end up turning off the shower with a plastic body wash bottle with visions of just how bad would it be if I got shocked in the shower with my body wet. No, thank you. I hop out, towel off and then rush down to share this interesting new development with my husband.
Edward responded as he typically does “I’ll go check it out”. Later that day he admits that he too got shocked and that this is curious, a bit worrisome. Me on the other hand? I go into my typical research mode. “Is this normal? Does this happen frequently? What do electricians say about this?” Most of what I read is a bit more than worrisome. Once again the visual pops into my head of one of us getting electrocuted in our shower. No thank you. I prefer not to die this way.
Now I’m torn between praying to St Joseph to help us repair our house, St. Eligius to help the electrical repair go smoothly or just those two and God along with it. I’ll probably end up saying prayers to all of them, come to think of it. I’m going to be adding in those prayers that this repair is no more than the $250 they quoted on the phone. I wonder to what Saint do I pray to, to request an end to this series of unfortunate events. I’m getting a little tired of them now.
Time to see the dentist
Just when you think that you’re good. That now you’ve got whatever bad karma you might have had slung at you out of the way. Like now you’re past that and the electrical issue will be good and fixed come Tuesday (you hope and pray). That is until I’m sitting in my office Sunday night, preparing for work, when Edward comes trudging up the stairs, stands in the doorway to the office and announces “I just lost a filling eating popcorn” Okay, so we’re not done yet. We still have more bad luck to run though.
As it stands today, the filling along with part of a tooth is getting worked on today to the tune of almost $200. All told, from end of November to now it’s been approximately $2500 in unexpected expenses. I have to admit, I’m holding my breath. In fact I might continue holding it till the end of the month if that’s what it takes. I think I’m getting tired of unfortunate events occurring.
Grateful for my inner squirrel
It’s collections of days like this that I am so grateful we have put money away. I’m so grateful that we have two freezers full. A pantry that is full. That we live a relatively self sustainable lifestyle. That even when storm clouds gather, when we watch tornadoes dancing around the hills inching their way closer to us, it’s okay. Because we gathered our acorns when they were plentiful. We stocked them away so that when the storms hit we’d be able to ride right through it.
This is yet another real world example of when the poo hits the fan. Many times when people use that phrase they think of a doomsday prepper or a survivalist but seriously all you really need to think of is a series of unfortunate events because honestly, that’s all it is.
