Today is Friday the Thirteenth. Did you remember that? I didn’t…until I was driving along the road, stealing glances at my Instagram feed while I waited at a red light. When the light turned green, I motored ahead and hadn’t quite put my phone back down when I clunked over some debris in the road. The bump surprised me and I actually thought “I need to keep my phone out of reach while driving. Looking at it wouldn’t be worth getting another flat tire.”
About a mile later I pulled over to figure out what was causing the clinking sound I heard. It was a flat tire.
I could see a hunk of metal still stuck into the tread of my two-month-old tire, and it looked pretty bad. After cautiously rolling into a nearby gas station to petition help putting on the spare (where Milo took all the bagged candy off of the hooks), and returning to the tire shop (where I’m getting to be on a first-name basis with the employees) I discovered that that hunk of metal was actually the handle of what appeared to be some sort of knife. Really? I gashed my tire on an actual knife? How does that happen?
That’s about when I remembered that it’s Friday the Thirteenth.
I stayed quite calm through the discussion of needing to replace the tire because of the extent of the damage, even though I was sick about the cost. My car takes specialty tires because of it’s low profile, and they aren’t cheap. The shop offered to give me the same small discount I received 22 days ago when I replaced one of my other two-month-old-tires. I mentioned that I wish they offered road hazard protection, and they said they did. Why no one mentioned it a couple weeks ago when I asked about it, I’m not quite sure. I thought I was handling the situation well, but the day just felt low.
The whole shebang, tire+roadside hazard, was going to run us $240 unexpected dollars. Like a round trip ticket to…uh, somewhere cool. On top of the tire, Eliot didn’t take a morning nap, and Milo was especially active today, so at noon I was totally wiped out. I thought nap time could be a great recovery, but Eliot only slept for an hour, Milo drew on the floor with a pen, and the sewing project I was working on wasn’t turning out. I was going crazy and a lot of my bad mood stemmed from the ridiculous tire. We needed to get out of the house, so I packed up the boys to go for frozen yogurt and breathe.
On the way out the door I picked up an envelope that was on the floor of the hallway. It was the referral bonus that we earned by finding neighbors to move into the apartment next door to us. The management must have slipped it under the door. We had offered to split the $200.00 bonus with our new neighbors as an extra incentive for them to make the move (yeah, we buy our friends.) “That $100 will take some of the edge off,” I thought.
Then I stopped in the landing to pull the mail from the box. Among the catalogs and coupons was a tear-away-edge envelope from the state. As I pulled the edges off and opened up the document, my eyes filled with tears. It was a check for $138.00. A reimbursement for my overpayment of sales tax. (Turns out I don’t have to pay sales tax for out-of-state transactions. Who knew?) Although I filed amended returns myself, and knew that some money was probably coming back sometime, I didn’t expect it today.
I strapped the boys into their car seats and sent a silent prayer heavenward. God sure loves me. In all of His incomprehensible greatness and glory, managing the farthest reaches of the universe, He was aware of the heaviness of my load this Friday, and He lightened it with his tender mercy. Feeling His love so clearly gives me new eyes and a new heart. It’s good to be reminded that we are indeed watched over and cared for, through troubles great and small.
It’s a good thing the car is ready to roll, because at 4 am tomorrow, we’re taking a two-hour road trip to Colonial Beach. I’m off to compete in my second triathlon. I think my cycling has improved a little bit in the last couple weeks… I learned how to shift out of the lowest gear a few days ago, so that should help. My hope is to finish ahead of more than just the over-seventy crowd. We’ll see how that goes. Regardless, after the race I’ll get to spend a day at the beach with all three of my men. The afternoon alone will make the swim, bike and run worth the effort!
I wish you all a wonderful weekend. I have a couple great sewing tutorials planned for next week, so get your scissors ready! xo
ps I’m @livefreemiranda on IG, feel free to follow along! Just don’t look at it while driving.
