What goes around, comes around
Tuesday, May 15th, 2007The beginnings of my crazy day started right here in Monroe when I ended up backing over a surprise in the driveway: a lovely board from our deck (Ryan’s been re-doing it) with a nice juicy nail sticking straight up. I drove to my normal coffee watering hole and everything seemed ok, so I continued on to work. No problem.
During my “duty-free lunch”, I got a phone call telling me my tire was flat. I knew it would happen. I was just happy that even though I backed up straight I somehow managed to only damage one tire. Oh well, it’ll be taken care after work.
All week I’ve been talking to my kids about karma. It’s getting me through the day, honestly, because I can’t handle another, “He took my pencil!” argument from 14 year olds. So I tell them not to worry because some people believe what goes around, comes around - good and bad.
Today was my good karma day.
I was going to change the tire myself, but then I remembered the promise I made to myself when I bought this car: I would never do any work on it. After all, that’s why I got a new NEW car - I no longer wanted to change the oil, add coolant every other day, or do weekly tire changes. No. I called a few tow truck places that quoted me around $50 cash (seriously, when was the last time you had that much cash? That’s a small fortune in cash for me to carry around). Then I decided What they hay, see if your AAA still works even though we switched insurance companies months ago.
Karma extended her hand and welcomed me to her world when AAA said my membership was good through July. And the man was so polite! He even wrote down “U of M Michigan plate” when I told him, just to humor me.
The driver came out after school and was done in less than 10 minutes (those fancy tools sure do help!). Right before he got there, karma helped me out again: as it turns out, my lovely VW — which I was considering trading in just yesterday but certainly are no longer considering even though the Honda Civic gets 30/40 miles per gallon and my car’s at 28/32–comes with a full size spare. Beautiful. And though it’s a little on the low side, I luck out because HIS truck is one of the only ones in a fleet with an air compressor. Bingo!
At Discount Tire I find out my tire is dead but lucky me, I get a brand new free one. They quote me 45 minutes and I grade quizzes for 30 minutes and then it’s done. AND I got to get Starbucks afterwards because it’s right up the street. Bingo #2!
I like this karma thing. It sure beats the last times I had a flat tire, which typically come in sets of 3s for me. One town the police cruiser who came to help me ended up getting a flat AND the tow truck; another time a brand new car broke down literally in front of my house (it had less than 500 miles on it) and my roomates car broke down behind mine. As you see, the fact that I made it 4 years without a flat tire is truly amazing.
