Friday the 13th

On Thursday the 12th a salesman had brought in Einstein’s bagels, so I put one in the toaster oven and it was great. The next morning when I got to work I put another bagel in the toaster oven. The toaster oven started smoking a bit, though it had been known to do this in the past. I walked across the break room to turn on the small ceiling fan, but by the time I made it back to the toaster the building’s fire alarm had gone off…for the first time in the seven years we’ve been here. Since I knew what was going on, I immediately made the short walk to the front door to turn off the alarm. As I was telling my coworkers what happened, a fire truck pulled up in the parking lot. The fire station is about 100 yards away, just down the street.

Then at lunch I drove to the bank to make a payment before vacation. It was Friday, so the bank was busier than usual. I had parked in a pretty safe space, but backed out slowly until I could see whether a car was approaching. There was a car, but the driver slowed and waved for me to back out. As I backed, I turned to look behind me…where another car had seen the same wave and was also backing out! I immediately put the car in drive and pulled back in…just missing a collision.

On the drive that evening to SC there was another near miss…some Friday the 13th!