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There are times when Murphy’s Law comes into play no matter
how hard I try to be positive. “Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.”

Last week I wrote about a vacation that was less than
satisfying. Now it’s time to talk about my car.

My state inspection is due the end of April, but I was
talking about the inspection with my mechanic even before I went away. We knew
the tires, brakes and lights were OK, but I was concerned about some rust that
developed on the driver’s side.

Not a problem, my mechanic said. He wouldn’t fail me, he
said, because it was small, there were no sharp edges and it did not intrude
into the passenger compartment. He’d be able to sand it smooth and use some
filler. No problem.

So off to Florida I went, knowing that I’d have no major
concerns when I got the car inspected on my return. Wrong.

I returned home on a Tuesday and made arrangements Wednesday
to take the car in on Thursday. I dropped it off bright and early Thursday
morning, walked home and waited for the call that it was ready. Three hours
later I got the call, but it wasn’t what I wanted to hear.

“Rich, there’s a problem and it’s expensive. … We’ll try to
see if we can keep it under 
$1,000, but I’m not sure,” said my mechanic.

What was wrong? A broken right front coil spring and a
transmission mount. The front shocks also needed to be changed because of the
spring, he told me.

But they couldn’t do the work that day because the parts
wouldn’t be in until Friday. So I’m without the car for another day.

Friday afternoon I bought my car back for a price that was
four digits before he decimal point. At least my tax refund covered the cost, though
I did have other plans for that money. And I had the car back and could cruise
Chadds Ford over the weekend for stories and photo ops. Wrong again.

I started out taking care of some personal errands early
Saturday morning, including a trip to Wilmington for some wide rolls of bubble
wrap for the framed photos that will be in my next exhibit. But, on the way
back home I noticed my battery light on the dash wouldn’t go out. The
alternator had gone bad and wasn’t charging the battery—so much for using the
car before getting a new alternator on Monday.

The job wasn’t done until 2:30 p.m. Monday. That meant I lost
five days, five days of no transportation, no way to hunt for stories or
photos. Now it’s Tuesday and it’s raining. And I still have to get that rust
spot taken care of. Arrrgh!

But at least I’m rolling again and can get away from the
smell of soaked carpet that happened because of a minor flood two days before
the vacation. I’m still waiting for property management to take care of that
situation. The work order went in two weeks ago, before my trip. I wonder if
anyone in the decision making process is named Murphy.

(Aside, as found on www.murphys-laws.com/murphy/murphy-true.html:
“One
important fact about Murphy's Law was that it was not actually coined by?Murphy,
but by another man of the same name.”)