My Bag of Luck

"You start with a bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the bag of experience before you empty the bag of luck."

I think that I have been using my bag of luck lately, and it's all due to my own stupidity.

I have been stressed lately. Lots of stuff piling up on my desk at work and a report that I am working on is overdue.

I should have known that I was overstressed when I was convinced that my dogs food storage bin was empty (even now I am convinced that it was empty), so I bought some more food and found that it was about 1/3 full. Don't know where the food came from, but obviously, I bought some food for him after the last time I fed him. (I put lots of food in an 'endless feeder', so I only feed him about once a week.)

That incident has been on my mind, and I have been considering taking more time off of work, but haven't progressed beyond that.

On the way to church this morning, I was passing the high school track and this rather unpleasant sound comes from my motorcycle and it loses power.

I verify that it's in gear and still no joy.

So I coast to the side of the road and took stock of my situation.

It was a quick check. I was stuck with a motorcycle that had a broken transmission. So, I called my dad.

"Check to see if it's in gear." Yeah, I did that already. I told him that it was in first gear and still rolled freely.

"Check to see if you have a chain." Of course I had a chain. What kind of question was that? But I dutifully checked to see if I had a chain.

My chain was missing.

So my transmission was not broken, but my chain was.

I pulled up to the next crossroad and waited for my dad.

This is what a Rebel looks like with no chain:



See, the chain is right here:



We got a trailer and brought my motorcycle home.

It's now sitting in my garage with no chain, and I have only myself to blame.

I read a book written by a pilot who flew helicopters in Vietnam. He was talking about the preflight checklist and accidents. He had gotten into an accident and said the inquiry usually determined that the cause of accidents was "failure to properly preflight the aircraft".

That would sort of be me.

If I had lubed and checked my chain regularly, I would be sitting in church right now instead of at my computer with a broken motorcycle.

I had just spent 86 miles running around the countryside with a dead cell phone and my motorcycle breaks 2 miles away from home in town.

Rats.

My bag of luck is emptying.


Ta!

Balisada