Big dark cloud

Remember when I went through that "bad spell" last month? The giant tree limb, the busted washing machine, and the leaking sink? I thought that fulfilled my bad luck quota, but it seems I might be in for a new spell of misfortune.

First, I got up this morning and went out to get the paper and feed porch cat. I noticed something wasn't quite right. See, my mailbox doesn't normally lie flat on the ground! Yep, someone pummelled my mailbox last night. It was fine when I got home from Huntsville around 8:00, but it was all busted up this morning at 6:00. My initial reaction was, "Damned kids!!!" As I looked around a bit, though, I became puzzled. They didn't just "baseball bat" the box; they shattered the cedar post that was driven into the ground. Seriously, the post was split in half. In fact, the mailbox itself appeared remarkably undamaged.

So I thought maybe a car, rather than a malicious teenager with a bat, might be to blame. However, the curb is fairly high in front of my house and I could find no evidence of a car climbing the curb. Hence, I'm back to the conclusion that someone did intentionally take out my mailbox, but I'm amazed at the force they used to split the mailbox post. Further, I looked up and down the street and found no other evidence of vandalized boxes. This leads me to believe someone may have it in for me. Hell, the semester's just now started! Who could I have pissed off that badly in the first week of class? Regardless, I went to Lowe's this morning and I now have a new mailbox post. If this one gets taken out I don't know what to do. Geesh!

Given that I had to replace a mailbox, I missed a work function today. Normally that wouldn't bother me, but this was a "going away party" for someone I really will miss. Seeing as how I'd missed the party, I figured I could at least take care of some chores -- update some lecture notes, work some stats problems, pay some bills, etc. When I logged on to pay my credit card bill, though, I had a big WARNING flag on my account! Something about suspicious activity, suspended service, etc. As a result, my account has been "frozen" and I couldn't even pay my bill online. Fortunately the live person phone call wasn't too painful and I was able to get everything squared away. I am a little nervous, though, about the possibility that someone out there might be trying to stir up trouble with my account number. I'm assuming nothing will "clear" since they canceled the old number, but who knows?

Now I'm worried that there's a third piece of bad luck waiting on me. Maybe I'll just go home and take a nap. I don't see how I can go wrong with that plan.