In Threes....

There was this one time when I was much younger that dad borrowed his mate's Haines Hunter which at the time was the flashest trailer boat on the water. He had an old 2 Litre Holden Commodore and we packed the family in, hooked up the boat and set off for Pauanui. Back then, the tar seal went to approximately half way up the Kopu-Hikuai Rd and then you were into corrugated gravel. Well, the car began to struggle with the grade and started to overheat... so on with heater (in sweltering summer heat), open with windows and a stop at the top to cool the engine down. That was the first thing to crap out, and everyone knows these things happen in threes. With the passing of years I can't for the life of me remember what # 2 was, but I do remember the third. Quite well actually, as it was the first time I've been rescued at sea (not the last...). Dad, Uncle Tom, my brother and I were on the Haines. We'd taken the battery out of the Commodore as the boat's battery had lost charge. Out to Slipper Island and over the side went dad and Tom to grab scollops. My bro was the boatman, and I was crew.  Dad was first up and the bro told me to throw the anchor line out on a buoy... yup you guessed it, before we'd started the motor. Kids at home, here is the lesson for you - never ever lift or ditch the anchor without having first started the motor. Which wouldn't start due to a flat battery... I don't know if you've ever tried it, but swimming after a boat that's drifting away is hard, add a bit on wind and you aren't going to win... anyhow we were off! Tom surfaced now and had all his scollies in a bear hug.... dad ditched his and swam like a mutha to reach us. We quickly found the spare anchor and deployed it. Tom eventually got to the boat, we pulled him aboard and he lay on the deck panting. Finally we waved down a passing boat and got towed in, which cost all the scollies which we gratefully gave to the rescuers. That night the Law of Threes was explained to me... things that break happen in threes, simple as that.

This morning as I drove from a client meeting, I took a bit of a wrong turn (actually I tried to overtake a truck, ended up in wrong lane, missed my turn off so decided to go with the flow) and as I drove down Waipuna Rd I passed a contractor with a big F-Off weed whacker. It threw a stone the size of a marble through my left rear cargo window - I have tint film on the car glass and it breached that. At first I didn't really know what had happened until I looked over my shoulder. It looked like it was in 1 piece so I thought it'd all be ok until I could tape it and get to a repair shop, but nah, as I took a right turn in the carpark building the window evacuated stage-left... stink. Insurance covered it right away but still, even though its the Xmas lead in we're pretty busy at work, so getting to and from the repairer has cost a couple of appointments with clients. With the boat break down yesterday (#2), I'm thinking that I've obeyed the Law of Threes.

And item #1? Take your pick, was it the regular car service that revealed wrong plugs, blocked filters blah blah and finished with the dopey mechanic putting 8+ Litres of oil in, when the capacity is 4 L? Or was it my failing eye sight (yup I need reading glasses)?

This season I better not break another fly rod.... because I'm back to one again in the Law of Threes count...

Temp repair...