People have their superstitions. Some won’t step on cracks in the sidewalk, some won’t walk under ladders. Hockey players don’t shave during the playoffs. For me, it’s lottery tickets. Something always seems to go wrong after I buy a lottery ticket.
I tempted fate recently, the jackpot was just too enticing. I thought, what the heck – what’s the worst that can happen?
A quick trip to Point Roberts later, and I would soon find out what could happen. Coming through the border, I was given a random COVID test.
OK, no big deal, I’ve done them before, I’ll do my part. I didn’t think that was still happening, but I guess so. I got home and immediately went online to book my appointment, but fate struck again. The only available booking wasn’t for three days. A little pointless by then, but I’ll follow the rules.
In the meantime, life goes on. Went and saw the new Top Gun movie – it was great. I received a nice note from the government reminding me that I needed to take the test. Well, maybe not that nice. It’s not me folks, it’s the booking!
The appointment finally comes around. Weird, I was coughing a bit the night before. Probably nothing. I do the test and package the whole thing up. Just to be safe, I do one of the at home tests as well – negative. Maybe I’m just worn out, I’ve been pretty busy, so I figured I would take a nap.
I take another at home test the next day – negative. But I’m not feeling too well, so I’m sent to my room.
Finally the results from the other test – positive. That’s it, I’m grounded. Stay in your room, you can’t go out and play.
So, for the last few days I’ve been doing my best to keep my family safe and myself occupied. Binge watching Netflix, catching up on my sleep. Father’s Day was relaxing – I didn’t have to fight over the remote, the Canadian Grand Prix and US Open on the schedule, and I was waited on all day. Still, it would be nice to go outside, instead of watching everyone have fun from my window.
It looks like the curse of the lottery ticket bit hard this time. Well, never again.
Wait, it looks like I won $10! When’s the next draw?
What could possibly go wrong?
Brad Sherwin, MBA is a long-time resident of South Delta, and has over 30 years’ experience in marketing, public relations and business strategy. He teaches post-secondary marketing, coaches hockey goalies and is past president of Deltassist.
