If it's the 13th...

[009] ... [General], [Life]

Today is the 13th of the month -- so what, anything special? Nothing in fact, the number is unavoidable whatever you are counting it towards. I just made it a point to write about something connected to the generally considered ominous numeral.

It began when trying to find out on the Net the exact Pacific time corresponding to my region so each post appears on the day than falling into the previous. Since being on the self-imposed 100 days of writing, each post matters towards the countdown.

I have looked up to timeanddate.com whenever in doubt and it led me to some interesting articles on the site which I never had observed. One such being Friday the 13th: 13 Facts About the Unluckiest Day in the Calendar. It's better if you read it on the site than me reproducing it verbatim to just fill-in. What I found interesting were some words I never knew of:

The fear of Friday the 13th is also called friggatriskaidekaphobia or paraskevidekatriaphobia. -- both Greek words derived from paraskeví that translates as Friday, and dekatria being another way of saying 13.

Though not a believer in the particular number, I did get into a bit of trouble when I bought my first PC twenty years back on February 13! My friend who helped me out was free only on that particular day and took me to a reliable electronic shop selling genuine parts. They sent a technician along with to assemble, whom I sent off separately with the goods, giving him the address and directions. When we two went to pick-up my bike to follow him, it was missing! Someone nearby assured it was towed-away by the police for being on the adjacent no-parking slot - - though we had parked correctly, someone else had pushed it to make way for his vehicle!

It wasted in more than an hour walking up to the police station, finding it among the sea of vehicles, paying fine (for no mistake of mine) and to reach my office, only to witness one more unpleasant surprise. There was a verbal fight on between our technician and someone he knew, resulting from an old feud! Our consignment of PC parts in various cartons was strewn all over the sidewalk and luckily nothing was lost or stolen. It took us a while to pacify both the involved to get back to our work, but the fairly decent guy was in no mood to continue after the incident. With a bit of coaxing and arranging lunch since it was almost time, the work finally got over by late afternoon.

Don't know if to make-up for the undue, providence saw to it that the machine ran smooth, error-free and blazing fast, admired by many, envied by some!

Call it a coincidence, or my choice of recalling the unpleasant, of all on this day, I got an email an hour ago after having left this piece unfinished and gone away, some kind of notification to pay-up arrears for the last 3 years with interest, that too for something cancelled long ago! No doubt it needed to fish-out the old correspondence and forward with details to convince the other end. So much for the 13th...