Car Ma

It started as I roused my lazy self and went to the farmer's market. I was inspired to get some oranges as part of a no-doubt fleeting attempt to have healthier food in the house.

My neighbor has a college-age girl renting a room. With the semester over, she's headed back to the homestead. I ran into her and her kinfolk moving a massive assortment of boxes and such.

I wished her luck in whatever her summer plans are and entered my apartment to begin a baking experiment.

I ran to the local supermarket to get some missing ingredients and continued with my mad experiment when there was a barely-audible tap on the door.

It was my neighbor's tenant (yes, that also makes her my neighbor... whatever). She wanted to make sure she'd returned a data cable she'd borrowed many months back and then ask a favor. It seems her plans A and B for getting to the airport failed her.

I assured her it was no problem to give her a ride to the airport. I finished up my bit of mad science in the kitchen and dropped it in the 'fridge while she finished whatever odds-and-ends needed to be done.

I then drove her through the insanity that is the freeway traffic to the airport with roughly two hours to spare before her flight was scheduled to leave.

Hopefully she got through airport security okay. I assured her she could call the family she stayed with if there was any trouble and someone would come get her. In a worst-case scenario, I would.

Having done my good deed for the day, I blazed home and baked my experiment. As it cooled afterward I prepped to go running when the phone ran.

My buddy Erik was in town and returning a book I'd loaned him.

Why is any of this significant?

Well, I'm cursed with incredibly bad timing. It hangs around me like a smoggy cloud of doom under most circumstances.

In today's case, my timing couldn't have been better. Giving my neighbor a ride to the airport let me refrigerate my baking experiment, which helped it turn out better. Because everything got a little delayed, I was home for Erik's call and able to rendezvous for my book, which is getting passed-along to another fortunate come Monday.

One little good deed paid off in small, but pleasant, ways.

Funny how life works out.