karma, ne?...

I just got back from St. Louis and a visit with my daughter, who is with the help of family and hospice, taking care of her husband in his final days…(long story for another time, but still deeply imbedded in this karmic episode).

This particular portion of the episode actually starts out more than a week ago. I left work a few minutes early to get a jump on the weekend and my b-day celebrating… Half way home, my car died and wouldn’t restart. I ended up calling a tow truck ($80) to get the car towed to the repair shop. To make a long story a little shorter, the bill was another $100 (to replace a burned out fuse in the fuel pump – because of their diagnostics computer). Didn’t get the car back until last Monday.

Last Thursday night after my classes and on my way home (around 10:pm) it died again – same symptoms… I had it towed ($75 this time). I left for St. Louis Friday morning, for the above mentioned visit. When I called the repair shop, they said they’d already started on it, and wouldn’t charge me again for hooking it up to the diagnostic computer, but there was a control module going bad that causing the fuel pump fuse to burn out… ($375)…;-/

The flight to St. Louis went without a hitch. The visit went as well as one could expect with the situation there.

My son dropped me at the St. Louis airport yesterday morning at 6:30 for a 7:45 flight. I got my boarding pass, went through security, made it to the gate, and was seated without a hitch.... then we waited on the runway for quite awhile... The speaker came on and said that we had to return to the gate to change out an auxiliary generator, which had gone off-line, that it was a simple switch, and that we'd be in the air soon. We sat in the plane at the gate for about half an hour... the speaker came on again and told us that we'd have to disembark and go back to the waiting area until another plane was brought around, because the problems were more serious than originally thought. (Notice that “the problem” became plural.)

After sitting in the waiting area for awhile, they announced that the flight was cancelled. So, I spent the next hour in a line trying to get another flight. The line formed very quickly, and even though I thought I had a good position, I ended up being the very last one processed. As a result, I was given the option of trying to get a standby seat on the noon flight, or take another on Northwest, that went to Detroit first and then on to my destination, arriving around 6:30. I was scheduled to teach a kids class at 5pm, so I chose the standby, which was very iffy at best (according to the agent).

Fortune favored me this time, as I got the standby seat. We finally left St. Louis around 12:20 their time and arrived around 2:35 our time. My ride from the airport had no clue what time I might arrive, since my last conversation with him was before I was able the get the standby seat... So when I got in I called, but he was in a meeting and couldn't get to the airport before 4... so, I read my ebook until he arrived. He dropped me at the repair shop (remember the repair shop?), where I picked up my car, and made it to the kids class by 5:05. The place was locked up, but most of the parents had waited... so I had a full class, and everyone seemed satisfied...

I got home only to discover that my computer was dead... played with it until midnight...no luck. My brother is going to take it today (after I get off work) and see what (if anything) he can do with it... After the computer debacle, I dropped on my bed ... didn't even bother to unpack... didn't wake up until the alarm went off at 5:am...

One wonders which of my many wonderfully good happenstances karma has been balancing out the last couple of weeks… I just don’t remember anything needing balancing that was THAT GOOD — ever…;-)~