KARMA

   Here's an excellent example of negative karma coming back to bite you in the toosh.
   This past Friday afternoon I put the boat in the water at a local State boat launch to do some early summer leaf peeping with my tolerant long-time girlfriend and her 12 year old son. The weather was perfect and the launch parking lot was close to empty on this sunny afternoon. I went through the usual boating precheck, fully charged battery, full tank of gas in the bowrider, and the stern plug securely in place.
   As I turned the key in the ignition of the 18 foot maxum, the key ignition switch fell apart into many plastic pieces. Not feeling comfortable 'hot wiring' the boat, we decided to put the boat back on the trailer and perhaps salvage the afternoon minus being on the boat and standing on the sandbar in the middle of Lake Zoar. Not really a negative Karma'tic experience, just an inconvenience of having to drive through Friday rush hour traffic and negotiating the Mix-master in busy Waterbury to make our way home.
   Near the end of the boat launch parking lot, I switched the gear selector from low 4 wheel drive on the Jeep, an '09 Wrangler Unlimited JK, to 2 wheel drive. Gears grinding and a thud as the transfer case shifter went limp. While I was sitting there surprised that we were no longer going in a forward motion, I did not immediately notice that the Jeep, with the boat in tow, was actually rolling backward - this was quickly brought to my attention. My girlfriend and her son found two very large rocks, boulders even, to put behind the trailer tires so it could be safely detached from the vehicle. Broken boat, now a broken Jeep. Called AAA (CAA for my fellow Canadians) and my girlfriend called her sister to rescue them from having to wait for both a flatbed truck and a seperate tow vehicle for the trailer carrying the wounded boat. But wait ... there's MORE.
   The tow truck drivers were both fantastic guys who made a real effort to hunt down which 'linkage' had failed in the transfer case, but ultimately the decision was made that it would be towed back to the dealer to have it mended. As the Jeep was being pulled onto the flatbead with chains, that we all saw being carefully attached just moment prior, both attachment chains slipped from their undercarriage hooks sending the Jeep rolling backwards down the flatbed smashing into the tongue of the trailer, punching a hole in the rear bumper narrowly missing the back-up camera. If the 'boulders' were not in place, the boat would have easily rolled down the imbankment and into the still warm waters of Zoar.
   I am curious now as to how many good deeds I must render until I cancel out some of the outstanding negative karma that has been haunting me; goes without saying that I was indeed an ... ahhh .... anal sphincter for the first 25 years - alright- wtf 30 years of my life.
   I am not God fearing, not a bible thumper, and I don't subscribe to any religious cult nonsense like when I was an alter boy in the fifth grade; big supporter of Bill Maher's mind of thinking in 'Religulous'.
I will, without having to pause, go back to Lake Zoar to collect the 'boulders' which I initially snickered about thinking that they were overkill for holding the boat tires from moving - this circus of karma could have indeed been a civil suit in this litigious State not to mention a total loss of the boat and trailer.

PS. Jeep was towed to the dealer without issue and was fixed by noon of the next day, and I replace the faulty ingition switch on the boat with little fanfare later in that day and the bumper is going to be repaired at no cost to me by AAA. Leaf peeping next weekend once again, hopefully Karma with take an F'n day off Eh! Both rocks are now in my garden...