For those who have never heard this little lesson:
“For lack of a nail, the shoe was lost. For lack of a shoe, the rider was lost. For lack of a rider, the message was lost. For lack of a message, the battle was lost.”
A similar situation has arisen for me, except that this time, it may not be for lack of a nail, but very likely the presence of one.
This is the week that I’m scheduled for some medical tests in New Jersey (on Thursday). One of the things I have to do to prepare for the procedures is to make sure I’m COVID-19 negative. Since the hospital in which I’ll be having the procedures done is in New Jersey, they require that I have the COVID test done in one of their in-state facilities.
My appointment for the COVID test is at 11:20 AM on the Monday prior to the Thursday procedures. I’m writing this on that Monday. I got in my car at 7:45 AM to go to the fitness center, only to discover a warning message on my dashboard that one of my tires was dangerously low (19 pounds when it should be 32). I pulled into the parking lot of a church along the route, re-inflated the tire, and headed home. I called the service department at the dealership where we bought our car (they’ve always been very good to us) to see if they could take care of the situation, but they didn’t have an opening until Wednesday.
After showering and dressing I talked to Karlyn to let her know that I really had to swap cars today. She had no problem with that – in fact, seemed happy to help. If she needs transportation, I told her she could use the Malibu, since I felt that it would be OK for local driving. So it appears that I will be able to keep my appointments this morning (in addition to the test, I also have a lunch meeting with a friend before I head back to Delaware).
So, for the presence of a nail (or whatever else may be causing the tire to lose air), I nearly lost use of the car. For lack of a car I would have missed my appointment. For lack of this appointment, I would have had to reschedule Thursday’s appointment. And so it goes.