Yippie dippie dippie!

You know the feeling you get when you have an assignment or another type of job to do that you're really dreading, and you put it off because you despise or are actually afraid of it, and then you're told never mind, they don't need it after all? Great feeling! 

Well, here is another: 

I thought the loan for my wife's car was a six-year loan, but after this month's payment they sent the lien release. It was a five-year loan! We're done! Five hundred bucks a month back in our pockets! WOOO!!

all ours!

Now, you can—and probably should—point out that this so-called found money is entirely the fault of my stupidity or forgetfulness or both. If I had bothered to check the account or had remembered the terms set out in 2019, paying off the car would be pleasant but not a surprise. And you would be correct.

On the other hand, my stupidity and forgetfulness usually bring me bad surprises. “That was TODAY?” “I agreed to this?” “We still owe six grand?” So to have a good surprise instead of a bad one is like Christmas morning.

Next week I am planning to take a drive to visit old friends, and my wife will probably tell me to take her car, which is newer and less likely to have trouble. And I will refuse. Because bad surprises still lurk out there, and I am not going to tempt fate by driving the just-paid-off vehicle through Jersey. Besides, I just dropped a grand on tires and repairs to my car. It owes me. 

And I have AAA, because life is full of bad surprises.