Friday, December 5, 2008

Murphy Is Alive And, Unfortunately, Well.

Most of us have heard of Murphy’s Law. This old adage goes, “If anything can go wrong, it will.”

The expression and the other “laws” attributed to Murphy supposedly came from Capt. Edward A. Murphy who was working on an Air Force project in the late 1940’s. Captain Murphy’s sayings were supposedly written down by others and passed into common awareness. Others dispute this origin and claim it actually came from what was known as sod’s law as in any old sod. My favorite is that it came from a Mr. Murphy whose car (in the U.S.) ran out of gasoline. He was walking with his gas can, facing traffic, wearing white. He died after being hit by a British driver driving on the wrong side of the road.

No matter how Murphy’s Law originated, today was proof positive that it is alive and well in my life.

First, my car tags expired and I’ve not received my new sticker despite having paid for it. I called to find out what was going on and was told the system was down and I have to call back later.

Later while at work I received a voice mail message from my SO telling me that the Honda had to be towed to the shop because it was leaking oil. Really leaking. As in it lost 4 quarts of oil all over the driveway. The repairs were going to range from $600 to a brand new engine.

As I was driving back towards home so I could pick up the stranded SO and we could go to today’s doctor appointment I got a phone call from my SO. My mother-in-law had emailed to say that my brother-in-law’s baby (due in January) had died. According to the MIL who is not prone to exaggeration, he’d taken his girlfriend to the hospital with severe abdominal pains. Her cervix had been stitched shut early in her pregnancy to help her not deliver too early. They were to take the stitches out this week. The hospital left her sitting in the emergency room waiting room 10 hours until her uterus ruptured. They still delayed performing a cesarean section until the baby’s heart rate had dropped dangerously low. The little guy was born dead and the girlfriend is in serious condition due to loss of blood.

On the way to the doctor’s appointment I made the mistake of telling my SO, in response to the very dangerous question, “Can this day get any worse?” by saying that the day wouldn’t get worse.

It didn’t exactly, but the fun kept coming. On the way home from the Dr. appt. my Chevy started making this horrific grinding noise. We had to have it towed to the shop, the same shop that had our Honda. Just after giving us good news that the Honda could be repaired for $300, they informed us the Chevy was going to cost almost $700.

So, yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus and there is a Murphy too.

The doctor, by the way, said we are dilated 1cm, this from completely closed on Tuesday. They’ve scheduled the induction for Thursday if Smudgie doesn’t make his appearance between then and now. I know, lots of walking, a bit of spicy food, and some more massage are in order.

The SO and I are both taking “family leave” for Smudgie’s arrival. We decided that this was probably a sign that we didn’t need to be driving so much and have both begun our leave effective Monday.


Now to more pleasant things. This is a Santa that appeared on my blog last year but he’s so delicious he bears repeating. He is, I think, my favorite of my Santa pics. He certainly looks as if he could fix anything that ailed you.

1 comment:

Anny Cook said...

Enjoy your forced family leave. It's an unplanned gift but enjoy it anyway.

Santa...yummmmmmm.