Out of Luck
Hello World,
And so here I am back again, and about the only person among the local populace not complaining about the weather, which is not to say that it's not worth complaining about, because lately, it has scaled new heights in complainability, and that's putting it mildly. In the space of 6 days, we had just about every kind of weather condition that's possible on the planet, and some that are only possible in far distant galaxies on the outer reaches of the universe. Of course there was rain, and it came down in torrents. Then there was snow, which in some areas, was blowing so hard sideways that there was more snow on the walls of the buildings than on the ground. It was also 60 degrees and sunny, except for when it was 19 degrees with sleet, and sometimes, on the very same day. Not to be left out, one day was so foggy that you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, while another one greeted us with howling winds of 60 miles an hour, that uprooted trees, knocked down utility poles and turned over tractor trailers on the highways. It would be possible for someone to look back on this and find it amusing in retrospect, except for those unfortunate residents who have been without electricity, telephones or cable television all week. We weren't one of them, or even two of them, although our cable was out for a couple of days, and so I consider us among the lucky ones and don't want to complain about the weather.
It was on Friday of last week that I brought RaggMopp to the animal hospital for a follow-up visit, when the fog was so dense it was a wonder that we got there at all, and was pleased to get a clean bill of health for the new kid on the block. Bill came home from work early, and we packed up the car with all of our belongings, to visit our friends on the outskirts of Albany for the holiday weekend. We drove north through fog, drizzle and glowering clouds, with snow clinging to the rocks and ground along the side of the road. Then we passed through a high elevation area, and came out on the other side to find it was 50 degrees and sunny, and all the snow had melted and everyone was having a beautiful day. We were glad to leave the bad weather behind us (or so we thought) and arrived at our destination without incident. Our friends have a new and very decorative Christmas tree with all the trimmings, and we were glad to see it and their other decor looking very festive. We unpacked, much to the chagrin of their monster cat, who obviously has sold his soul to the devil, because at 21 years old and crabby, he's still going strong. We had dinner at the diner in Hudson, and then came back to open belated Christmas presents in front of the fireplace, which was more for ambiance than heat, since it was still 50 degrees up there. We turned in early, because we had a big day planned for Saturday, and anyone could see how things going so well on Friday had obviously lulled us into a false sense of security that would not only come back to haunt us, but do so repeatedly.
It all started out innocently enough, as these things so often do, when we went to the 76 Diner in Latham for lunch with two of our other friends. It was here that the storm clouds started brewing on the horizon of our plans, although we didn't realize it at the time. I casually mentioned that I was hoping to squeeze in a trip to my favorite consignment shop in the area, only to be told that Repetique had recently gone out of business. I was disappointed, but our friends said that a trip to the train store would cheer me up, as it featured an impressive layout with G, O, H-O and N gauge trains on different levels. It started to rain just as we got there, and when we walked in the door, all the lights went out. We puttered around in the dark, and actually did some shopping, for almost 30 minutes, but the electricity never did come back on so we could see the trains running. Obviously learning nothing from the experience, we headed off to the train show at the Schenectady Museum, and arrived just in time to see them packing up for the day. It should have become clear to us at that point that someone at the 76 Diner had heard us discussing our itinerary for the day, and had called ahead to all the places that we wanted to go, and make sure that we couldn't do anything that we intended to do. In fact, leaving the museum, someone joked, "Well, which place do we want to jinx next?" We figured that just by virtue of us going there, our next destination would likely be having a plague of locusts, or get hit by a meteor or something. With the temperature falling steadily, and freezing rain pelting us from every side, we trudged hopefully to another pleasant consignment shop, the Peddler's Wagon that we have enjoyed on previous visits, only to find them closed for inventory on this particular day. At this point, we were getting so punchy that I admit, at this turn of events, that we just stood out in the parking lot and laughed. In the dogged spirit of hope springing eternal, we set off for our final stop of the day, Hewitt's Nursery where we generally avail ourselves of their post-holiday sales on Christmas merchandise, and found them not only closed for the day, but we couldn't even stand in the parking lot and laugh, because the parking lot had been chained. You wouldn't think it would be possible that of the five places we wanted to go, we absolutely struck out at all five of them, which is a record of failure unprecedented even in our misadventures, and we've had some whoppers, I don't mind saying. And don't think that our friends weren't afraid to go back to their own houses after all this, in case the jinx continued to follow us around, and they found themselves fighting off raining frogs or boils.
After a frustrating day of fruitless driving around in what turned into cold and wet conditions, we decided to pick up pizza and salads to eat in, rather than taking our chances at jinxing more local businesses. (And it was a heart-stopping moment, after everything else, when we drove up to the pizza place and found all the lights out, but they gave us our food just before they closed up for the night.) We had a very nice dinner and managed to relax and laugh about the events of the day, in spite of it all, until we wished our other friends good night and good travels as they headed off back to their own residence in Latham. Not so fast! It wasn't much longer when we looked out and found them right back in the driveway, this time covered with snow, and they said that between the wind and icy conditions, it was impossible to drive. Our hosts, who graciously offer us their hospitality for the weekend, now had to scramble to put up two more overnight guests unexpectedly, and we realized ruefully that the jinx had indeed come home to roost.
It turned out to be a lot of fun anyway, sort of like a spontaneous slumber party, and everyone was in good spirits and determined to make the best of a bad situation. After all, it was all we could expect from a day like that, and it was probably lucky for us that it wasn't even worse. We managed to keep ourselves amused, and you know sometimes you have to make your own fun. At one point, I was enjoying some Snapple Kiwi Strawberry, and was reading the trivia on the inside of the lid, which is not only printed in very tiny type, but is also dark gray on a pale gray background, making it even harder to read. It appeared to say, "The largest fish is the whale shark, which can be over 50 feet long and weigh two tons." Of course I can't see anything anymore, with my eyesight getting so bad, and so I handed the lid to Bill to ask him to verify that what I was reading was actually what was printed in the lid. He looked at it and said, "In 1761, Benjamin Franklin invented the ... " We all laughed.
Sunday was a beautiful day, chilly but with brilliant sunshine, and the snow making everything look like a glittering fairyland of enchantment. We hoped that our luck had changed for the better, and sure enough, we had a wonderful meal at Denny's that was worth the trip, followed by souvenirs and old-fashioned sweets at Cracker Barrel, and taking another swing at Hewitt's Nursery, this time with excellent results. I suppose the jinx must have moved on to some other unfortunate group of people, and good riddance. It's true that our holiday weekend had more ups and downs than usual, but we were still sorry when the time came that we had to pack up and leave for good. Our trip home was uneventful, and we were glad to find just a dusting of snow here instead of anything more serious. The "ho-hum" attitude that our cats greet us with on our return has a refreshing honesty that we've come to expect, and this was no different. And we had Monday off from work (thank you, Dr. King!) to unwind and recuperate from our excursion, and a good thing, too. Although, everyone already knows what I think of those short weeks at work, and this was going to be my third in a row!
Speaking of work, I am here to tell you true that miracles do still occur in this mixed-up crazy world. When I got to my office on Tuesday, I was amazed and delighted to find that arrangements had been made to have a temp help us out while we're short-staffed in the department, which is something that I have never heard of the hospital doing before. I don't know how they managed when I was on Jury Duty last year for two months, but they never brought in a temp, that's for sure. I suppose they might have realized that I was just on the verge of blowing my brains out, and of course since there isn't anything left up there any more, the bullet would have gone right through and out the other side, and might actually hit somebody important, so probably they didn't want to take that chance. After all, Workers Compensation only goes so far.
And so here I am back again, and about the only person among the local populace not complaining about the weather, which is not to say that it's not worth complaining about, because lately, it has scaled new heights in complainability, and that's putting it mildly. In the space of 6 days, we had just about every kind of weather condition that's possible on the planet, and some that are only possible in far distant galaxies on the outer reaches of the universe. Of course there was rain, and it came down in torrents. Then there was snow, which in some areas, was blowing so hard sideways that there was more snow on the walls of the buildings than on the ground. It was also 60 degrees and sunny, except for when it was 19 degrees with sleet, and sometimes, on the very same day. Not to be left out, one day was so foggy that you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, while another one greeted us with howling winds of 60 miles an hour, that uprooted trees, knocked down utility poles and turned over tractor trailers on the highways. It would be possible for someone to look back on this and find it amusing in retrospect, except for those unfortunate residents who have been without electricity, telephones or cable television all week. We weren't one of them, or even two of them, although our cable was out for a couple of days, and so I consider us among the lucky ones and don't want to complain about the weather.
It was on Friday of last week that I brought RaggMopp to the animal hospital for a follow-up visit, when the fog was so dense it was a wonder that we got there at all, and was pleased to get a clean bill of health for the new kid on the block. Bill came home from work early, and we packed up the car with all of our belongings, to visit our friends on the outskirts of Albany for the holiday weekend. We drove north through fog, drizzle and glowering clouds, with snow clinging to the rocks and ground along the side of the road. Then we passed through a high elevation area, and came out on the other side to find it was 50 degrees and sunny, and all the snow had melted and everyone was having a beautiful day. We were glad to leave the bad weather behind us (or so we thought) and arrived at our destination without incident. Our friends have a new and very decorative Christmas tree with all the trimmings, and we were glad to see it and their other decor looking very festive. We unpacked, much to the chagrin of their monster cat, who obviously has sold his soul to the devil, because at 21 years old and crabby, he's still going strong. We had dinner at the diner in Hudson, and then came back to open belated Christmas presents in front of the fireplace, which was more for ambiance than heat, since it was still 50 degrees up there. We turned in early, because we had a big day planned for Saturday, and anyone could see how things going so well on Friday had obviously lulled us into a false sense of security that would not only come back to haunt us, but do so repeatedly.
It all started out innocently enough, as these things so often do, when we went to the 76 Diner in Latham for lunch with two of our other friends. It was here that the storm clouds started brewing on the horizon of our plans, although we didn't realize it at the time. I casually mentioned that I was hoping to squeeze in a trip to my favorite consignment shop in the area, only to be told that Repetique had recently gone out of business. I was disappointed, but our friends said that a trip to the train store would cheer me up, as it featured an impressive layout with G, O, H-O and N gauge trains on different levels. It started to rain just as we got there, and when we walked in the door, all the lights went out. We puttered around in the dark, and actually did some shopping, for almost 30 minutes, but the electricity never did come back on so we could see the trains running. Obviously learning nothing from the experience, we headed off to the train show at the Schenectady Museum, and arrived just in time to see them packing up for the day. It should have become clear to us at that point that someone at the 76 Diner had heard us discussing our itinerary for the day, and had called ahead to all the places that we wanted to go, and make sure that we couldn't do anything that we intended to do. In fact, leaving the museum, someone joked, "Well, which place do we want to jinx next?" We figured that just by virtue of us going there, our next destination would likely be having a plague of locusts, or get hit by a meteor or something. With the temperature falling steadily, and freezing rain pelting us from every side, we trudged hopefully to another pleasant consignment shop, the Peddler's Wagon that we have enjoyed on previous visits, only to find them closed for inventory on this particular day. At this point, we were getting so punchy that I admit, at this turn of events, that we just stood out in the parking lot and laughed. In the dogged spirit of hope springing eternal, we set off for our final stop of the day, Hewitt's Nursery where we generally avail ourselves of their post-holiday sales on Christmas merchandise, and found them not only closed for the day, but we couldn't even stand in the parking lot and laugh, because the parking lot had been chained. You wouldn't think it would be possible that of the five places we wanted to go, we absolutely struck out at all five of them, which is a record of failure unprecedented even in our misadventures, and we've had some whoppers, I don't mind saying. And don't think that our friends weren't afraid to go back to their own houses after all this, in case the jinx continued to follow us around, and they found themselves fighting off raining frogs or boils.
After a frustrating day of fruitless driving around in what turned into cold and wet conditions, we decided to pick up pizza and salads to eat in, rather than taking our chances at jinxing more local businesses. (And it was a heart-stopping moment, after everything else, when we drove up to the pizza place and found all the lights out, but they gave us our food just before they closed up for the night.) We had a very nice dinner and managed to relax and laugh about the events of the day, in spite of it all, until we wished our other friends good night and good travels as they headed off back to their own residence in Latham. Not so fast! It wasn't much longer when we looked out and found them right back in the driveway, this time covered with snow, and they said that between the wind and icy conditions, it was impossible to drive. Our hosts, who graciously offer us their hospitality for the weekend, now had to scramble to put up two more overnight guests unexpectedly, and we realized ruefully that the jinx had indeed come home to roost.
It turned out to be a lot of fun anyway, sort of like a spontaneous slumber party, and everyone was in good spirits and determined to make the best of a bad situation. After all, it was all we could expect from a day like that, and it was probably lucky for us that it wasn't even worse. We managed to keep ourselves amused, and you know sometimes you have to make your own fun. At one point, I was enjoying some Snapple Kiwi Strawberry, and was reading the trivia on the inside of the lid, which is not only printed in very tiny type, but is also dark gray on a pale gray background, making it even harder to read. It appeared to say, "The largest fish is the whale shark, which can be over 50 feet long and weigh two tons." Of course I can't see anything anymore, with my eyesight getting so bad, and so I handed the lid to Bill to ask him to verify that what I was reading was actually what was printed in the lid. He looked at it and said, "In 1761, Benjamin Franklin invented the ... " We all laughed.
Sunday was a beautiful day, chilly but with brilliant sunshine, and the snow making everything look like a glittering fairyland of enchantment. We hoped that our luck had changed for the better, and sure enough, we had a wonderful meal at Denny's that was worth the trip, followed by souvenirs and old-fashioned sweets at Cracker Barrel, and taking another swing at Hewitt's Nursery, this time with excellent results. I suppose the jinx must have moved on to some other unfortunate group of people, and good riddance. It's true that our holiday weekend had more ups and downs than usual, but we were still sorry when the time came that we had to pack up and leave for good. Our trip home was uneventful, and we were glad to find just a dusting of snow here instead of anything more serious. The "ho-hum" attitude that our cats greet us with on our return has a refreshing honesty that we've come to expect, and this was no different. And we had Monday off from work (thank you, Dr. King!) to unwind and recuperate from our excursion, and a good thing, too. Although, everyone already knows what I think of those short weeks at work, and this was going to be my third in a row!
Speaking of work, I am here to tell you true that miracles do still occur in this mixed-up crazy world. When I got to my office on Tuesday, I was amazed and delighted to find that arrangements had been made to have a temp help us out while we're short-staffed in the department, which is something that I have never heard of the hospital doing before. I don't know how they managed when I was on Jury Duty last year for two months, but they never brought in a temp, that's for sure. I suppose they might have realized that I was just on the verge of blowing my brains out, and of course since there isn't anything left up there any more, the bullet would have gone right through and out the other side, and might actually hit somebody important, so probably they didn't want to take that chance. After all, Workers Compensation only goes so far.
posted by El Tango Fandango @ 9:45 PM
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