Murphy Needs a Kick in the ....

That beastly Murphy and his dreadful "law" need to be taught a lesson.  I have had it up to --here-- with Murphy's Law today.  It just feels like I never should have arisen from my bed, because things just kept on going wrong.  Every time there was a "clue" from Murphy, I should have just quit while I was ahead. 

Monday Dec. 14, 2009.  Date of Last Final Exam for the Fall 2009 semester.  Yay.

- Arise at 6:10 am, believing it to be a normal sort of a day
- first clue (of Murphy), little pinging sounds on bathroom window.  Bad sign.
- prepare myself for departing the house in time to arrive at school for 8 am exam.
- aiming to leave at 6:50, just to have a buffer of time
- second clue, forgot to click button on coffee pot to turn it on.  No time left for coffee.
- third clue, can't find correct shoes.  Have to wear alternate pair.  Disturbs the Earth's balance, clearly.
- pull out of garage, easily turn car in driveway as usual, start to head up hill to road
- fourth clue, heading up hill not very easy
- turn onto main (gravel) road, go down hill as usual, go up hill on the other side, as usual.
- stop at stop sign.  Completely.  Really!
- begin to inch forward on slippery, frozen-rain and snow surface of road
- fifth clue (big one), car not responding to steering or brakes.  Very bad sign.
- gracefully slide across road, and end up in ditch.  Back end of car stuck out in middle of road.  Ugh.
- someone nearly crashes into the back end of my car as I sit there considering my options.
- realizing that there is entirely too much of the car positioned in (more or less) the middle of the road, I manage to skid it around to make it more or less parallel with the road.  However, this does not particularly improve my mood. 
- call Kelly to relay the bad news, which he can see from our office window
- Kelly gets in truck (4WD Ford) with a tow line to head to my location.
- Kelly starts to head up driveway hill to road
- Big clue for Kelly - heading up hill not very easy for him either!
- he turns onto main (gravel) road, goes down hill as usual, and becomes stuck because he cannot make it up the other side of the hill.
- sixth clue - Kelly establishes that something is wrong with the 4WD mechanism on the truck
- seventh clue - Kelly is stuck in the valley between the hills and cannot go anywhere
- I'm still stuck in the car and 2 passers-by have offered to help, gotten out of their vehicles, nearly fallen on the road because it's so icy, and then pronounced it too slippery to do anything
- I walk (slide) to Kelly in the truck, we try some more to get the truck up the hill.  No dice.
- I then walk home while Kelly keeps trying to get the truck up the hill.
- I call the University to say she won't be coming in for the exam, and fortunately they will let me write it tomorrow
- I call my secretary to say I won't be in for work.  She reminds me my year-end review is scheduled for tomorrow, when I will now be taking the exam.  Hmmm...very bad sign.
- I call AAA to get car help.  I'm told it will be an hour.  (at this point, imagine Murphy laughing himself silly, slapping his leg and curling up with mirth)
- Kelly comes through the door muttering bad words, carrying my purse, which I had left in the truck.  It doesn't really suit him.
- Kelly gets the tractor out of the barn and we venture out on it to the truck.  Fortunately, the tractor has chains on the tires.  Unfortunately, one of the tire chain clamps snapped in the storm earlier this week, so we're operating with chains on 3 of 4 tires.
- Kelly drives the tractor, I steer the truck, we manage, slowly, painfully, and with much difficulty, to get the truck home.  Everywhere is incredibly slippery and the chains of the tractor don't even dig in very well.
- Eighth clue - we prepare to go into the house to warm up and can't close the garage door behind us for some reason.
- Ninth clue - we enter the house and all the lights are out and the clock on the stove is blank.  Yup, power's gone.
- Tenth clue - I still can't make any bleeping coffee!  ARGGGGHHH!!!
- We go back out to try to extricate my car from the ditch with the tractor.  Our lack of success is stunning.
- Neighbour "A" comes by and tries to help also, having a better truck than ours.  He nearly goes in the ditch too.  He also has an exam today and needs to get to school.  At least he makes it out of the area.  I hope he did well on his exam.
- Kelly and I trundle home on the tractor again, he tries to start our woodstove, while I begin worrying about the eggs in the incubator, the temperature of which is dropping rapidly. 
- After considerable delay, the woodstove finally gets lit, and of course, moments after, the power comes back on.
- I realize that the post office has called to leave a message on the answering machine (which was not working before due to no power) to say that there is a box of hatching eggs for me waiting at the post office.  Fat chance.
- I seriously consider going back to bed and trying to start all over.  Instead, I do some knitting for a while.

At this point, things slowly begin to improve.

- Neighbour "B"s daughter has put her car into the ditch sometime during the morning while we have been messing around with Murphy and his stupid law.
- Neighbour "B" comes to help his daughter by putting large chains on his pickup and he extricates her car.
- He then extricates my car.  What a hero!
- I call triple A, who "cancel" my request (at about 2 pm)
- Around 6 pm, a local towing operation calls to let me know that they are on their way.  Sigh.  I explain about the cancellation, much to their confusion.  Thanks Triple A.

Let's hope tomorrow is a little better, shall we?!  And let's hope it really is the day of my last exam until May.  Whew!