UNFORTUNATE

One final day to participate in the two polls at left. Go ahead - you know you want to.

I don't know if you're familiar with Lemony Snicket - but he writes about a Series of Unfortunate Events. It's about a family that continues having one bad thing after another happen to them - things come out of nowhere to inflict at most, serious danger, and at least, serious irritation, on them.

Sometimes - just SOMETIMES - not ALL the time - but ENOUGH times - I feel like I'm part of that Unfortunate Family.

Take TODAY, for instance. Earlier I wrote about car shopping with my youngest daughter. (Refer to April 19 blog for that.) Today, we went together, she and I, to actually pick up the car we finally decided on last Saturday, our FOURTH time out dueling for vehicles.

So, at around 4:30 p.m. we took off. It was an hour-PLUS drive down to Crystal Lake, Illinois where the car was waiting for us. There is NO good way to get to Crystal Lake from the Southeast Wisconsin area. NO good way. So we stopped/started/sped up/slowed down/sat in traffic/watched lights turn red-yellow-green over and over without moving/fought rush hour - Unfortunate. We finally arrived at our destination via GPS 80 minutes later.

I didn't remember that you had to sign so many papers to buy a used car. It's not like we're going to LIVE in it. We just want to drive it back and forth here and there. Just give it to us; we have the money.

But after all the obligatory instructions, signing my John Hancock, nodding politely thru all the "AS IS" disclaimers and extended service contract pitches, we eventually headed out to the lot with our keys to the shiny blue car sitting out front.

We casually strolled around it a few times, giving it the final once-over.
Any scratches or dents we hadn't noticed before? Nada.
Any large circles of oil puddled underneath? Nope.
All four tires still there and still round? Yep.
All right. OK. Ready to rock.

So, my daughter got in the car and -- first order of business before we could leave the lot was -- to set all the radio presets to her favorite stations. Couldn't put 'er in drive till that was done.

At last, I got in my car and led the way back home - her driving her new car behind me. It was another 80-minute drive back home - but we never made it. Twenty minutes from home, all of a sudden she pulled over to the side of the road. I turned around and drove back to her. She was panicking. SOMETHING had happened to the tire. It wasn't flat; that was for sure. I got in and drove it about 20 feet. Something seriously grinding at the right front tire. Unfortunate.

Call to AAA.
Call to the place we bought the car.
Call to home.
Call to my daughter's boyfriend.
Waiting for an hour for the tow truck to be towed all the way back to the Crystal Lake dealership.

At this point, please refer back to the second blog of Friday, April 11th - and insert that concept here. Do that NOW, please.

But thru it all, I got to spend some quality time with my daughter in the car by the side of the road - wiping her tears - eating Cheerios from the box together - talking about boys - at last, laughing about the whole thing.

Unfortunate? I don't think so.

And be blessed.