Synchronicity

It’s a subject I never used to consider at all, but in the past few years it has become a regular feature here at the gulch.

I live on the economic edge, and by that I mean the edge of oblivion. My regular, dependable income is $30 a week and that’s almost-but-not-quite not enough to live on. It covers my food, fuel and ecig fluid (used to be tobacco) with hardly anything left over. Out of the goodness of her heart Landlady handles dog food and coffee, two not inconsiderable expenses. The blog almost pays for itself, on average, through the tip jar. Sometimes I’m in arrears to my internet provider. Everything else, I cover with occasional paying gigs and they’re iffy.

Anybody who handles a household budget can see holes in that budget plan you could drive a major chainsaw repair through, let alone eye surgery. Only a fool depends on luck for necessities, but sometimes I am that fool.

And it’s remarkable how well it works, most of the time. Of course my mind isn’t far from the amazing donation that came in last week for my eye surgery, and the timing on that was better than I’ve let on because the vision in my right eye really is going milky. But what I really mean is the little, quotidian things.

I was getting ready to go to GC Guy’s place to work on arsenic caps, and lamenting over the condition of my favorite canvas jacket. I bought this really nice used jacket at a Salvation Army in Socal, a year or two before moving out here so I’ve had it at least eight years. It has worn really well but it’s getting threadbare and this was probably its last practical winter. No idea how I’d replace it with anything near as good. And what happened? GC Guy came into Geiger Counter Central and said, “Hey, Joel? I’ll understand if you don’t want it but I’ve got this jacket – it’s still in fine shape but there’s this one stain where I got some expanding foam on it…” High quality blanket-lined canvas jacket, better than I could ever afford. Perfect fit, and like I care about a stain.

Same day I was slaving away on arsenic caps and hoping the nice weather would hold because the next chore is to cut some firewood. I haven’t gone out to the boonies to cut a substantial amount of juniper since October, but it was time and I wasn’t looking forward to it. The chainsaw is all tuned up and ready to go but to tell the truth I’ve been feeling my age. I can do it, don’t get me wrong, but I didn’t want to.

And D&L came by (they dump their garbage in GC Guy’s dumpster, same as me) and asked if I wanted to break up the porch from their old fifth-wheel for firewood, because it’s too weathered to save for lumber. I did indeed, because that’s substantially less work – not to mention chainsaw wear and tear.

See what I mean? Perfect timing. So now I’ve got a new/old jacket that’s good for a decade, barring accident, and a trailer full of seasoned wood ready to cut to length that cost me hardly any sweat and no danger at all. And they both dropped down on me just at the moment the situation had gone from “want” to “need.”

It’s funny how often that happens. Part of it is having neighbors who really do take care of me, not because they’re do-gooders but because it’s in their interest. Part of it is good-humored readers who perceive TUAK as a service they’re willing to pay a little for, or want to be a part of. I encourage that, of course.

But there often seems an element of timing that can be downright eerie. I mentioned this to D this morning – who actually thought I was doing him a favor. D’s a Christian, and he said, “There is a god, you know.” And I said, “I don’t disbelieve in God. But he doesn’t owe me any favors.” If the Christian God is as advertised, I’m probably not on his “nice” list. I’m not a church-goer, and there are incidents in my past that would surely exclude me from the ranks of the virtuous pagans. So I’ll leave God out of it, if he doesn’t mind, and just go with synchronicity. Like porn I may not be able to define it, but I know it when I see it.