This kind of situation turns up often in comics.

This refers back to my entries “Internet Rationing” and “More divine (?) comedy“, about the numerous and unlikely obstacles that arose to me getting the level of Internet access I was used to until July this year. I chose to present these in a lighthearted way – after all, it is not the end of the world if I don’t get to watch new anime or play YouTube the last half of the month. Billions of people don’t get to watch YouTube at all.

Still, a part of me worried if I was stretching things too far. The fate of Balaam came to mind, the prophet who didn’t take a hint and whose donkey eventually had to speak out loud. Even though he survived that particular episode, he came to a sticky end later. I haven’t, so far. Not sure about the people who were involved in the collision today.

See, I had expected some comical ineptitude from the Norwegian postal service. It is still owned by the state, after all, even though it is now organized as a business. As a fiscal conservative – or what we here in Norway call “non-socialist” – I feel obliged to expect  ineptitude from anything state-owned, until there is proof of the opposite. Well, there is proof of the opposite: They discovered that I had moved, while the Samsung Galaxy Tab was still on its way, and redirected it to the post office nearest me. I could follow its progress using its tracking number, and saw that it was waiting for me. It was almost too good to be true. (How often have I said that phrase now?)

The post office closes at 17 (that’s 5 PM in English) so I decided to go home a little earlier today and pick it up. I printed out the collection form at work, and took the earlier bus. Now you can see what I mean. Yes, there was a collision this particular afternoon. No, it did not involve me or the bus I was in. Not except that we were delayed and arrived at the bus station – about 100 yards from the post office – ten seconds to five.  I am not really that fast while carrying a heavy laptop.

You couldn’t make this stuff up. Or you could, but your publisher’s editor would demand you cut it before accepting your novel. Reality, of course, differs from fiction in this, that it does not have to be realistic.

I am not ready to laugh at it all until I know what happened to the people in the cars. There were ambulances, but the cars did not look like the kind of wreckage that leaves body part lying around. They should be fine if they used seat belts and did not have a heart condition. But I have a browser window open on the news report still, waiting to find out how much they had to sacrifice for me to not get my Android device on a Friday afternoon.

Ah, the news are in. One person was sent to hospital for a check after experiencing back pain, the other five were physically unharmed. That could certainly have gone much worse! I feel relieved.

Still, as the Main Character of my story, I hope this thing can turn from a curse to a blessing from now on, somehow.

I am not entirely crazy enough to feel sure three cars collided just to keep me away from my toy for a night. If so, I would certainly be obliged to do something extreme this night to make up for it! But I am led to believe that most of us are the main characters in our own stories, even people who to me seem pretty bland and who even feel so themselves. Evidently not everyone feels life is an exciting adventure that they would love to continue for ever and ever. I do. But on the other hand most people are important to someone, and in that regard I am probably one of the least important characters alive.

In either case, it is rare that a good chess player moves a piece, be it king or pawn, with just one purpose in mind. Of the best players one may say that “even his plans have plans”, and the Light is certainly more forward thinking than even that. Even if everything happens for  a reason, I think very few things happen for only one reason.

The series of coincidences that have racked up about my broadband access is certainly long and unlikely, but there is no single thing in that list that would not be reasonably normal on its own. It is just the way they go on and on that makes it disturbing.  And that is visible only to me, just like the star constellations in the sky are visible only from our solar system: The stars in them are frequently far, far apart and not related in any way except for being aligned as seen from our little speck of space.