It's quite common for people to hold a little superstition about Friday the 13th being bad luck. And for those who hold that belief, they must dread years where there are several months where good ole Friday unfortunately falls on the 13th of the month. I recall that this past September had a Friday the 13th, because it was one week before Emma was born and my mother-in-law commented on my Facebook page about how it wouldn't be a good day to have the baby (and then another friend of mine commented how both of her kids had in fact been born on Friday the 13th's, so it wasn't that bad...how crazy is that, though, that both her kids arrived that way!?). Anyway, this past December also had a Friday the 13th. It occurred just a few days after we had arrived in Australia and to me it was just any other Friday. I don't really think too much of that superstition (or any for that matter). However, after my experiences this past Monday, perhaps I've found my own superstition to worry about.
Monday the 13th
It was just a few days after we'd been home from our big trip. It was John's first day back to work, Evan's first back to daycare, and even my first back to work (although I worked from home with Emma that day).
The first thing to go wrong actually didn't first happen that day, but a few days prior when we first tried to start my car. After sitting unused in the cold garage for so long, something had apparently "frozen" as it made a terrible knocking sound when we first started it. We let it sit all weekend until Monday, in which we tried it one more time before calling the shop. It still knocked and even had a bit of a hot rubber smell so we decided it shouldn't be driven. Luckily it is under warranty, so the fact that the car wasn't working right wasn't really the worst thing that could have happened, but watching it be towed away that afternoon wasn't fun.
The more frustrating consequence of this situation was being stuck at home without a car, and having poor service from the dealer's shop to top it off (they never called me back even though they said they would and I had called and left several messages. I mean, hey, I just wanted to know that my car was delivered to them and roughly how long I'd have to find alternative transportation! I didn't get to talk to anyone until I called back yet again the next morning!). John was due to work until late in the evening, and it hadn't dawned on me that I wouldn't have a car to pick Evan up from daycare until about an hour before he needed picked up! I couldn't reach John to see if he'd come home early, so my backup plan was to walk over to pick him up (a luxury we have because our daycare is in our neighborhood). It still wasn't my preferred plan due to the fact that it was cold and quite windy, getting dark, and the roads and some sidewalks were icy/snowpacked in places. Plus, I had to take Emma out in that! Pushing the double stroller through those snowpacked areas as I tried to cross streets was not easier, and it only got worse when the weight of Evan was added to my load on the way back. Yet, we managed to get him in time and then get back home in one piece (granted Emma cried most of the way there and nearly all of the way back).
After getting the kids down for bed, John and I tried to relax watching some TV as we do most nights. During this time we heard a loud ruckus of something falling down. We were worried it was something in one of the kids's bedrooms, so we went to check it out. Nothing seemed out of place so we went on with our evening. Before we went to bed I went into the kitchen to start getting some things ready for my first day back at work the next day, when something nearly fell on my head as I opened the door of our pantry. I looked to the ground to the disturbing sight of a gray furry creature scrambling to hide amidst the bags at the bottom of our pantry. I gasped quite loudly in horror, which alerted John to come see what was going on. As he arrived, the little rodent decided to make a more permanent hiding place in our soda pop can box, so John also got a glimpse of him (at least he knew I wasn't making it up!). After this episode, a couple things happened. 1) I made a midnight trip to Walmart to buy mouse traps (I couldn't sleep knowing this guy, and possibly others, were freely roaming around my house!), and 2) we investigated the earlier noise in our basement. Sure enough, something had fallen down off the storage shelves. It wouldn't have happened just by chance, but more likely due to something running across the (albeit somewhat precariously) stacked items causing them to slide off and fall to the ground. More mice perhaps? Something larger in our crawl space? I was horrified. I guess this is what we get for leaving our house vacant for nearly a month just after also having gotten rid of our cats. (sigh)
I did not sleep well that night.
The following days...
After the horrible Monday the 13th came to an end things have gotten brighter. My car didn't appear to have anything wrong with it, so I was able to pick it up a day later (granted I was still displeased that they didn't call me back when they said they would so they had it a lot longer than needed given nothing was wrong). And we hired professional pest control people to assess our home, while also doing a lot of cleaning and investigating ourselves. I was worried that we had a mouse infestation, given how long we were gone and that they could have been breeding and nesting in our home. Luckily, the problem has so far been pretty limited...possibly to just that one mouse. We had very minimal droppings around, and while our traps didn't catch anything, the professionals' traps caught the little guy within the day after they installed them (and only that one). We still have all of the rest of the traps out, and they installed bait stations outside to try to assess where the entry point is so we can close it. The bonus is that we have a much more clean and organized pantry now too (including a lot of newly purchased plastic storage bins to hold our opened cereals, pastas, etc). So far so good I guess...but I will still be leery if another Monday falls on the 13th in the near future. :P
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