My mutant power

When I was younger and doing Radio in Ohio, a good friend of mine and I used to joke that my mutant power was "luck". Everything seemed to come up right for me. I had a great job doing morning radio. I loved to go to work everyday. I also did part time contractor work for a game company that let me work on my own time and paid me for it. Things just seemed to go right for me. Hence, it was my "mutant luck factor".

When I was a kid, I had a clover patch next to my house. Pressed in a Bible that I still have, are several four leaf clovers and one five leaf clover. Added to my luck, I suppose. ("But our four leaf clover goes to five!") I also once heard an idiot radio DJ say that if you lick your thumb and press it to the celing of your car when you go through a yellow light, you can make a wish and it will make you lucky. TO THIS DAY, I still engage in this idiotic superstition.

I began to think that I had run dry on that luck lately. Although I did manage to escape the crumbling foundations of my last job and pull another dream job, it just seemed like the blind luck was no longer there.

And then my phone rang tonight.

In Seattle, where I'm moving to, my realtor FINALLY returned my call regarding Friday's inspection of the house I'm buying. Make no mistake, this house is more expensive than I'm comfortable with and the family knows we're going to be sucking it in for a while until we get settled. Thus, I really don't need any nasty surprises. I was worried about the inspection, because with the way the market is now, any surprises that come up can cause problems. The seller can just plain refuse to fix things and easily sell the house again the next day. Back to square one. It's a seller's market, so if you're a buyer, you aren't holding jack for cards.

So Jeremy says "You won't believe what happened at the inspection."

Great. Here it is. Cracked foundation, leaky roof, built on ancient Indian burial ground, etc. The Great Big Wrench has been dropped and I'm about to be crushed.

Jeremy continues. "The water main in the front yard ruptured and flooded out the yard. The seller is responsible to pay for it so $5000 later, you have a brand new water main. If this had happened a week later, you would have been screwed"

It took me a second to process that. This house was built in 1988 and the water main cracked and ruptured. It turns out, the cherry tree in the front yard ("We have a cherry tree?" the wife asked to which I confidently lied "Yeah, I told you about that.") grew into it and broke it. Further, I had this happen to me in Ohio and my yard ended up looking like Beirut. Jeremy told me that the crew who did it, NUMBERED each piece of sod when they cut the lawn and rebuilt it perfectly.

Wow.

As for the inspection, it was fine other than the chanting and rumblings from under the garage.

I won't chalk this up to luck, as that way is fraught with peril. But I am looking for my five leaf clover.