Category: steelie

That’s what I said to my wife yesterday as I finished scratching the last of the scratch-and-win lottery tickets my mother had bought me for Father’s Day. Ladyshark looked at me, smiled — it was one of those smiles that implied, “come back and see me when you’ve won some real money, Dear”. Then she said, “You’re pretty.”

Thanks, Love.

Well now, the thing is, I kinda deserved it. Okay, maybe I didn’t deserve it but the situation certainly did call for it.

You see, last Friday, my wife and I had finally conceded to the fact that we should really bring our car in for servicing: there was a knocking in the front and the engine light was on. We had been driving it for a while like that because other than those couple of things the car ran just fine. Besides the fact that we just simply did not have the money to fix it. Yes it knocked but there were no steering problems and no obvious engine problems. So, even though the budget wasn’t there, we ultimately decided family safety was more important and we would just pay for the damage with the credit card.

The car is now fixed… one thousand four hundred and ninety-five dollars worth of fixed. Yup, $1,495.00. Ouch.

Now my wife and I aren’t exactly church-goers* but this fine day of newly acquired debt, my wife looked up, placed her hands together and half-jokingly shot out a quick, “Dear God, if you could find some way to send us fifteen hundred dollars for car repairs, that would be great. Thanks.” Needless to say, our weekend was a fairly low budget one…

Monday, I start to come down with another massive sore throat which ended up turning into my forth official throat infection in nine months. I do not have poor hygiene. Honest. By Tuesday I was hurting. I had to leave work early. Ladyshark was already on her way over to near where I worked to run some errands so she and Baby “X” swung by to pick me up. This was by far the worst throat infection of the lot. We took care of the errands then swung by Little “L’s” daycare to pick him up so that Ladyshark wouldn’t have had to make the special trip out to get him again later. The whole family was home together early. I like it when that happens.

Baby “X” had fallen asleep in the car and we managed to keep asleep AND get him upstairs. No easy feat. Once we got completely settled into the house, I checked our messages. There was one for my wife…

“Hello, this is so-and-so calling on behalf of Staples/Business Depot to inform you that you have won a little bit of a prize and would like you to give us a call back so we can get your contact info and address so we can arrange delivery…”

“Hey, Ladyshark, there’s a message for you. Some guy from Staples called. Said you won a small prize and they need you to call them back.” I thought maybe she had won an iPod Nano. I remembered seeing one on a poster in Staples last time we were there. Ladyshark joked, “A prize from Staples? Ooooo, maybe it’s a pack of paper”. We laughed.

Ladyshark called Mr. Staples back while I got Little “L” into his highchair for his snack. I was fastening the little guy in the seat, meanwhile, I can overhear my wife’s side of the conversation (I’m paraphrasing), “Hello, this is Ladyshark… right… yes, okay… Yadda-yadda-yadda… I vaguely remember filling out that ballot. That was a while ago now… right… uh-huh… yes…” It had gone almost completely silent for a moment and then my wife yelled, “ARE YOU SERIOUS?!? I WON A SMART CAR!?! ARE YOU KIDDING???” At which point ( I was later informed), Mr. Staples replied, “No, I’m not kidding. Actually, it would be illegal for me to be kidding. We take this very seriously.”

And no, I’m not kidding either. We did win the car. They are even planning a little Smart-Car parade to deliver the car to her and do the whole key-handoff photo-op thingy. Too cool.

Alas, as much as we loved the idea of keeping the car, toting the four of us around in car that only seats two is slightly less than practical. We know we have to sell it… couldn’t afford the insurance on it even if we wanted to keep it. But what a prize. Unbelievable. Besides, I’ve been needing a new computer for a while now — my laptop is over six years old now — so, I asked my wife, “Does this mean I can get a new computer now without having to sell my scooter for it?” She smiled and nodded. Steelie was too happy.

Unbelievable.

Yesterday, I was off sick too because I was at the point where I would have rather been knocked unconscious than have to swallow again. Later in the day, we were wondering if we might be able to just get the cash value for the car instead of us having to sell it ourselves. So, I went online to check for the contest rules. Un-frikkin-believable!

Steelie: “Hey, Ladyshark. If you won the Smart Car, that means you won first prize.”
Ladyshark: “Yeah, so?”
Steelie: “So… you didn’t just win the Smart Car! You won the iPod Nano too!”
Ladyshark: “Seriously?!?”
Steelie: “AND…”
Ladyshark: “What do you mean, ‘And’?”
Steelie: “AND you won AN APPLE LAPTOP!”
Ladyshark: “SHUT! UP!”

It was like the PTB** said, “Oh, he wants to buy a new laptop… Meh, why don’t we just throw one in.” Apparently, when my wife had first called Mr. Staples, he was outside on the way to his car and didn’t have the prize list in front of him so, he forgot to mention it. Umm, we forgave him.

Unbelievable.

So, yeah. Hands down, the best sickday of my life. The Money we get from this car will make bill-paying day soooo much less stressful and that $1,495.00 bill a bit more manageable. And after all the luck my wife was having, I figured I should check my own and scratch those tickets my mother had bought me back on Father’s Day, “Hey look, I won six bucks!” “You’re pretty”

I had it coming.
Unbelievable.
—
steelie

*not without faith or sprituality just not church-goers. Another topic for another time.
** PTB = Powers-that-be; a Buffy/Angel reference.
PS: Thanks God.

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