I have come to the conclusion that either the concept of Karma is a load of crap, or I was one evil son of a bitch in a previous life.
See, my roommate and I have two parking spaces at our current apartment. A friend of mine had a car that she couldn’t, at the time, store anywhere, so I figured I’d let her use one of the spots (the one farthest from my apartment).
Management, apparently, didn’t much care for that. The car was unregistered, so they wanted it off their property. Things came to a head yesterday, since they wanted to cut down a tree that the car was parked under. “Move it lose it,” quothe they (well, paraphrased they, actually).
Since my friend is in no position to pay for tow and storage fees right now, we decided to meet this morning and move the car.
Problem: it doesn’t start, and hasn’t been able to start for several months. Jumps were attempted, unsuccessfully, a couple times in the past.
So, to get it anywhere, we (read: I) will have to push it there.
Problem: our street is constantly filled with parked cars. Often, even in the numerous red zones, and frequently, double parked in the street.
So, finding a spot is going to problematic. Well, point for Karma, not 30 seconds before she arrives this morning, a prime spot open up right across the street from the current parking spot. Better yet, it’s the size of a single car, and flanked by red zones, so we (read: I) don’t have to mess with trying to parallel park the car while pushing it back and forth. “Groovy,” says I.
So, we start pushing the car. A kind fellow volunteers to help us out. Karma is looking pretty good, since I’ve done a ton of good stuff for this particular friend, and gotten relatively little in return (note, that for karmic purposes, I wasn’t really expecting anything, either). We get past the gate to the parking area, and have to stop because of lots of traffic. When we reach the street, we find someone has taken our desired spot. And, there was nowhere else to park the car on the street. Kind fellow now has to get on with other things, so I am stuck on sole push duty again. We ponder where to move the car, and decide that we may have to try to push it way down the street to my other parking spot. I start pushing. The car won’t budge. I keep pushing.
I hear, quite audibly, I might add, a snap. That was my ankle. Instantly, it began to swell. The universe is now mocking me. I can tell.
So, let’s recap: the car is in the driveway to the gated parking lot, and blocking it quite well. I’m now crippled. And, there’s nowhere to move it to, even if I weren’t.
We resigned ourselves to having it towed, and having to pay exhorbitant storage fees. My friend makes some calls, nothing pans out.
Then, in our darkest moments, the vehicle which had stolen our prime spot leaves! Yay! We can move the car there! Um…if I could actually help push it. Which I can’t. Just then, another kind fellow happens along and helps us move the car. Yay for Karma!
So, now the only thing left is to get me to a hospital to see just what kind of damage was done to my ankle. We get there at just after 8:00am this morning (well, yesterday morning, I guess). At 10:00am, she has to leave to get back to work. I still haven’t been called in. Seems there was lots of ambulance traffic that morning, and the ER was understaffed. By then, I was in quite a bit of pain.
Finally got in at about 10:30, got X-rayed at 11:20, was told that it was only a sprain (I was afraid it was something like a broken or detached fibula), given a splint and released at 1:00pm.
Now, I have no way to get home. So, idiot that I am, I start walking. Well, limping. Slowly.
What would normally have been a half-hour walk became an hour and a half of intense pain, in the heat.
My Friday sucked. And I’m still in pain. The universe owes me, dammit.
