If it wasn’t for bad luck…

…I’d have no luck at all.

So I was having a pretty crappy day on Wednesday. Nothing extremely out of the ordinary, just a disproportionate amount of things going wrong instead of right. The final straw came while I was driving back from lunch

I had rolled down the windows of my car because the sun had made it like 12 billion degrees inside during the hour we were eating. (Ok it was my wife’s car, AKA the good car, not the one that got totaled a few weeds ago or the yet to be purchased new car).

Once it cooled down, I went to roll the window back up. It got about halfway there and decided that’s about as far as it wanted to go. Somehow the glass had jumped whatever track it was on, and couldn’t go up any higher. Repeated attempts at righting it were unsuccessful and I decided I should stop playing with it and take it into the shop Thursday before I burned out the motor. It wasn’t the end of the world yet. I figured it was just some freak thing and if I got to the shop early enough they could have me out within an hour.

As I may have mentioned before, My wife has somewhat of a difficult commute. We live on the southwest side of Chicago and she works in a suburb on the North side. Unless you live in that town or on the train line that runs through it, there is no good way to get there. It has to be the most inconveniently located suburb in the Chicagoland area. So she takes a train in to the city and another back out. Of course they go to different stations so she has to walk a few blocks in between trains which really sucks because she has about ten minutes to make the transfer or she has to wait over an hour for the next train. If she works late, the trains don’t match up at all and she has to wait at least an hour between trains no matter what.

So when she works late I usually drive downtown to pick her up, as I had to do Wednesday night.

Bet you can’t guess where this is going.

As I’m getting on the expressway I see the unwelcome flash of lightning out of the corner of my eye. “Maybe its just heat lightning” I think to myself. Nope. A bolt of light streaks across the sky. “Maybe its too far North. I haven’t heard any thunder. Oh wait. That must be what the low grumbling noise is.”

“Maybe I can pick her up and get back home before the rain really hits” I think as I start seeing drops of water on my windshield. Seconds later I’m driving through a torrential downpour with a half open window. The rain is coming at me hard, and sideways, and I can’t see anything because the water is relentlessly pummeling my face.

Let’s just say that was a fun ride home. Did I mention the heavy construction on all major roads leading from downtown Chicago to my house that only served to lengthen the amount of time I got to sit in the rain?

All I can say is that I hope the opposite end of this particular bit of misfortune happens at the poker table. A big tourney win might make me feel better.