Weird Things

If weird things happen in threes, then I guess I can relax for a few days, because three weird things have happened this past week to give me pause and question human nature.

1) It is last Wednesday. I put an outgoing check to post in my mailbox. Now I know I shouldn't mail checks out this way and trust me, I never will again so please don't waste your time committing a felony to steal my mail. Wednesday. This is the day after the huge snowfall. The world is just beginning to unbury itself, so I put the check in the box rather than wading through the snow with three children to the post office. And in the meantime two different parties come a-knocking on the door wanting to clear our sidewalk. The first is a group of teenage boys. The second is a middle age man in a Carhart jacket. I brush them both off (I'm always slightly offended by offers like this, though I know I shouldn't take it personally - like don't I look like I can clear my own snow!?) Two hours later I finally get my boots on, and you guessed it, the check is gone, and there is no mail in the mailbox. I frantically run around the neighborhood to confirm my fears - no, the mail carrier has not yet visited. And then I quickly put a stop payment on that check. It is a business check anyway. Turns out no one can cash a check to a business.

2) It is Thursday night. I place our garbage (how I love garbage day!) out in the alley for Friday morning pick up. It is overflowing - remember how I forgot to put it out last week? Well. Friday morning we are heading out before the garbage pick up, and the trash lid is closed. I stare for minutes wondering if this is a magic trick or if I am just going crazy. But no, someone has removed a bag of trash. Is this a helpful neighbor trying to ease our trash load? Perhaps. Or did the check thief come for more info? More likely. I wish so much it was the bottom bag of trash that has been removed which contained the dog remnants from the spring cleaning of our backyard. I sure hope I shredded everything of value and interest...

3) A totally different weirdness. It is late Saturday night and I am taking a long, hot shower. When I step out of the bathroom, Daisy (the dog) is staring intently at the front door, which is slightly ajar, and Geoff is no where to be found. I am slightly freaked out, but hoping he just stepped out to get a breath of fresh air. He returns shortly. Apparently while he was getting a drink of water he looked out the kitchen window and noticed A PERSON laying and then crawling in the middle of the street. He said cars were driving around this person. No one stopped to help. Did anyone even call the police? So heroic warrior Geoff went out to see what was going on and found a very intoxicated woman. He helped her up and tried to walk her home, but apparently she couldn't even find her home. So he brings her back to our front sidewalk of safety and calls the police.

Weird things. I am slightly unnerved by all three incidences. I feel invaded and uncertainty remains as to any aftershocks. I think of what my college roommate always said that annoyed me so much at the time. "People will fail you," she said with her Texas drawl and her smug certainty that God would save her in the end.

But I am beginning to see the light. Not the God part. The failings of human nature. Weird things, we humans.