Recently I started believing luck isn’t my friend. In other words, my luck sucks. But now I realize, depending on how I look at things, bad luck can have a silver lining. So by changing my way of looking at things, lo and behold, I discovered I’m actually a lucky duck.

For instance…

While I was stuck in downtown traffic, my cell phone rang. Since I’d just delivered feral cats to be sterilized, I picked up the phone thinking the vet might be calling. That’s when I noticed a police car in the lane to my right, the officer watching me holding my phone.

In California it’s illegal to hold your cell phone while in your car if the engine is running. So, yes, I broke the law. I’m a criminal. But what bad luck that cop was there, stuck in traffic with me.

Then the officer’s lane started moving but mine didn’t. Was my luck changing? The officer inched forward then waited for cars in my lane to move (no doubt to signal me to pull over). My heart pounded. He waited then waited some more. I felt like a trapped animal.

But then my luck did change. On my left was a shopping center and I happened to be in front of the entrance. Knowing the officer couldn’t back up let alone get into my lane with bumper to bumper traffic, I made my escape into the parking lot.

Fortunately, the shopping center had a back exit so I quickly headed that way. It took me 20 minutes longer to get home than usual but that’s the price one pays when caught breaking the law. Lucky me, right?

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On my way back from Santa Rosa, having delivered 8 feral cats to the vet, my KIA SUV blew a head gasket on the freeway, 45 minutes from home. My thermostat immediately shot to HOT, aka the Consider Yourself Screwed stage. An hour later AAA appeared but because of Covid I needed a ride home. As luck would have it, my sister lives up that way so she picked me up.

So after only 3 years, the SUV was history. And where is the lucky part of this story? It’s this: I could have broken down on the freeway with eight cats still inside. What then?! No Uber or my sister’s little Toyota could accommodate 8 traps plus me. And lucky for me, Marin Humane let me borrow their van to retrieve the kitties later that day.

# # # #

Last week I went to the bank to deposit donation checks for our nonprofit. But when I arrived, they’d already closed. Drat! So I did something I rarely do — use the ATM. When my turn came, I inserted the 9 checks all at once, stupidly ignoring my gut telling me to do them one at a time.

Then, as the checks disappeared, I heard a funny noise. Maybe not so much funny as frightening, like someone being strangled. Now don’t get me wrong; nobody died during my deposit but only 6 of the 9 checks went into the ATM. The other 3 were stuck, barely peeking out from the mouth of the beast. What to do, what to do.

I took a knife from my glove compartment, and since the 3 checks were stuck together, maneuvered the blade in far enough to catch the edge of one check to pull them out. What a lucky duck, huh? So you see, when you think your luck sucks, just look for the silver lining because it’s there somewhere. I’ve learned it’s all in how you look at things.

PS…Last night my purse was stolen. Bare with me while I look for the silver lining…………………….okay, I found it. Luckily, my cell phone was in my pocket!