Who the hell's driving my karma, anyway?

I owe my baby boy a sincere debt of thanks for the gift of a brand new barbeque.  Odd how these things come about.

One week to the day after being born, serendipity smiled on my infant, the end result being that I will be able to grill him some burgers this summer.

It's the least I can do.

My wife and I are both inordinately proud of our newest son.  Parents usually are.  Amy's penchant for scrap-booking inspired in her the desire to send out some personalised birth announcements.  She's a scrap-booking fiend.  She found that she was short on supplies.

"Simon," she said to me.  "Can I borrow your debit card?  I just need to pick up a couple things."

"Sure," I said.  And handed it over to her.  She's my wife; I entrusted her with the PIN years ago.  What are four little digits next to heart and soul, baby.

One of my wife's very few failings, if I can be so bold as to call it that, is that she doesn't organise her personal effects to the same degree I do.  Wallet and purse are anathema to her.  She prefers whichever pocket is closest to hand and frequent reminders from her husband.  Drives me a smidge batty.  I normally have to goad her several times to return my plastic, spurring on a bit of a journey through hindsight and various favourite hiding spots.  (I've lost count of the number of times I've laundered her driver's license.)

Thus, when I went to Superstore, I was forced to pay for our groceries with my VISA.  And, more importantly, on the trip home I bypassed the nearest Tim Hortons for the coffee and iced cappuccino I intended to bring home for my wife, my brother and me.  (They're currently in the midst of their regular 'Roll up the Rim to Win' contest.  Tim Hortons, not my wife and brother.)

A little upset that I was denied my joe, I reminded my wife, again, upon returning home, to gimme my debit card.

"Oh, right!  It's here in my coat pocket Si."

Later, my older son was kicking up a fuss, so Amy suggested I take him out for a drive to get the coffee I had been denied earlier in the morning.  When we returned home, my brother and I shared the two large coffees while Amy enjoyed her coffee slurpee.

After putting Declan down for his nap, Aaron, my brother, handed me his empty coffee cup that he would have thrown out but for the fact that we had recently been discussing the young Quebec girls who wanted to share the vehicle prize they had won from a discarded Tim's coffee cup found in the trash.  The parents of one of the girls, finding out about the inadvertent winnings, quickly lawyered up and the spirit of sharing engendered by the find has now devolved into a finders keepers scenario.

So I quickly realised, taking the proffered cup from my brother, that the rolled up rim clearly advertised the winnings of a Broil King Barbeque.  (One of the ten thousand offered in the contest.)

SWEET!!

I'm very glad that his generous spirit was not swayed by greed.

You see then, if my son had never been born, my wife wouldn't have wanted to hand craft birth announcements, would not have asked for my debit card, would not have prevented me from buying coffee in the morning due a noted lack of said debit card, thereby leading to the events that saw me go out to purchase coffee later that same afternoon in a different - and obviously winning - cup.

Thanks Tavish... I owe you one.

Ironically, we pan-fried hamburgers for dinner.

*****

(The win nicely offsets the ambulance bill we got in mail Friday afternoon.)

Comments

[Marc]

Wow. I didn't think anyone ever actually won the big prizes (my eagerness at Roll Up the Rim time notwithstanding). I figured they just took some pictures of happy families (a la the now-retired Canadian Tire guy) alongside the various prizes "available". You've single-handedly restored my faith in the system.

[Edmonton Jenn]

I'm jealous. I buy a bloody coffee from Timmies every single day during roll up the rim, and the biggest prize I've ever won is a muffin.

Are you certain your wife and I weren't the same person in a past life? Cause she sounds awfully familiar...

[Jim (of Brazil)]

It was the least your brother could do ... after you naming your son after him and all!

I guess that means your string of bad luck is over: did you ever figure out what the third "bad thing" was?

[Paula]

All that confluence of events, and I don't even warrant a mention? If you hadn't been talking to me on the phone WHEN YOU WON, do you really think you would have?? Well, I'll just have to sprinkle my fairy dust elsewhere for now on.

[Francesca]

Now I'm craving an ice cap!
Very cool that you won, and congratulations on your little one.
I'm impressed that you're wife is so motivated so early....go girl!

[marian]

See? I told you the water heater was the third bad thing and you were free to go.

[Mark]

Congrats on the grill.

No fair that you keep getting such interesting things to put in your blog. Why can't my wife squirt a baby onto our queen-size bed? Dang. I call shenanigans.

[TerriTorial]

SWEET!!! I was just telling HUBBY the other day who bad we need a new BBQ this summer. I am so drinking a Double Double a day for the next week!

Or I could just go and buy a new one huh?