On The Way
By Olivia Fowler

How superstitious are you? It’s likely you’ll say you aren’t superstitious at all. And maybe you believe that to be true.

But do you step on cracks on the sidewalk? Walk under ladders? Avoid black cats?

Do you think four-leaf clovers lucky? What happens if a mirror is cracked? Do you believe the person who gets the short end of the wishbone is lucky? Or is it the long end?

I haven’t come across a wishbone in a long time, not since they changed the way they cut up chickens in the meat department.
When I see my horoscope, I do read it. It’s interesting to me, and I can’t say I actually believe any of the predictions, but I do consider it entertainment.

Someone told me a few months back that Mercury is in retrograde, which meant all things electrical would be likely to malfunction. I didn’t know what that meant and asked for an explanation. It was something to do with the planet Mercury and the Sun, but it’s hard for me to remember things I don’t understand, so I dismissed it all as hooey. That’s a nice way to say I thought it was nonsense.

However, during the time between Thanksgiving and now strange things have happened. Each incident could not be considered strange when evaluated singly, but lump them all together and a different picture is formed.

It started with my computer. It quit working abruptly one press day. That’s nothing new. Computers are often problematic and pride themselves on breaking down when most needed.

But following on the heels of the computer problem was the microwave shutdown. It happened the same week.

We had to replace the computer, then had to immediately replace our microwave. The next day, the coffee grinder stopped working. We had received one for Christmas about a year ago and retrieved it from the corn crib.

Lo and behold, two days later the coffee pot broke down. Now this was a real catastrophe. Without coffee in the morning, no one in the household functions well or even at all.

We bought a new coffee maker. Next to go was the crock pot. We couldn’t believe it, but it happened. We bought a new one.
Next, the hot water heater blew out. Literally. Water was streaming out beneath the house, and we learned the side of the hot water heater had a huge hole in it. It was an old one, but the timing seemed strange. Following that, we had to replace the spigots on the bathroom lavatories.

At that we breathed a sigh of relief. I actually said, “Well, I know nothing else can happen.”

Big mistake. The very next day when we tried to drain the water from the bathtub, nothing happened. It was also broken. That had to be repaired.

Last Monday night, after the dishwasher had been loaded, I hit the button to wash and nothing happened. I opened and closed the door, thinking it hadn’t shut properly. No. That was wishful thinking. The dishwasher has been added to the list. We haven’t had it repaired yet, just in case something else in the kitchen dies. That way, we’d only have to pay for one service call.

We don’t know how long this retrograde thing is supposed to last, but we’re ruling nothing out. All we have left is the toaster, and I’m keeping an eye on that. Logically we know that this is all just coincidence.
But it won’t hurt to cross my fingers, carry a four-leaf clover and possibly a rabbit’s foot — or is it a tail? Maybe I should just get a rabbit. We’ve been told they also make good pets.