Years ago, a priest I admired and liked quite firmly insisted that things like knocking on wood or walking under ladders were superstitions and had no place in the life of a Christian who believes in God. And I’ve tried hard to hold to that kind of faith. I don’t exactly go out of my way to walk under ladders, but then, I don’t freak when a black cat crosses my path. I jumped out of a perfectly good airplane for the first time on Friday the thirteenth and got married without something old or borrowed about my person.

And so, I firmly told myself, just because my air handler/heat pump has finally given up the ghost, long past the life expectancy noted in my pre-purchase home inspection, mind you, and my brand new iPad also died, way before its time, there was no reason to believe that misfortune always comes in threes. But still... there was that feeling of waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Now I’m wondering which of the events since is to be considered the other shoe!

As I write this, my AC/heat guy is outside replacing my air handling system that had been limping along for the past two years with temporary fixes with a brand new, up to date (no Freon here) system. And Best Buy promptly replaced the iPad that failed to take a charge. But yesterday, I wrote out a check for the Fireman’s fund and noted the admonition to replace the batteries in my smoke detectors.  I dug through my bin of batteries and found the right size, only to discover the smoke detector in my bedroom was broken. Quite definitely broken since a piece fell out when the battery was removed. A piece I have no idea how or where to put back. So, off I went to the hardware store, and I now have a new, state of the art, smoke and carbon monoxide detector. Was that number three?

Or is it the door to the air handler that literally fell off when opened today? The door is a heavy one, made of pressed wood and all the screws pulled right clean out. Terry assures me he’ll fix it, but I’m wondering if it shouldn’t be replaced. Time will tell on that one.

Or perhaps it’s the fact that mildew was found in the duct. According to Terry’s son, this often happens when a system is failing and tries so hard to function that it sucks moisture up into the ducts where it does not belong. I’m told that an ultraviolet light will fix this. Of course, they don’t have such a light with them and Terry will have to return another day to install that to the tune of another couple hundred bucks.

So, here’s the big question of the day... Since 5 things have failed this week, does this mean there’s still one more thing out there waiting to pounce? And where’s my friend Ken when I need someone to reassure me that misfortune comes in threes is just a superstition?