Chains & Karma

In Colorado, it snows. During ski season this is a mixed blessing. It needs to snow lots so that the skiing conditions are out of this world. It can't snow too much because too much snow closes the roads making it impossible for the skiers to actually get to the ski resorts.

I was 18. My then boyfriend, Troy, and I used to try to go skiing every weekend. We didn't have a lot of money. I was temping part time and he worked for his dad. We barely scrapped by and anything extra we had we spent on skiing. And skiing is expensive!

It was snowing a blizzard and we set off. We had to stop in Idaho Springs to buy a set of chains because the road reports said that the pass was closed to all vehicles without chains on the tires. Troy used his credit card and I picked up the box with the receipt on top and walked out. As we pulled out of the parking lot I handed the receipt to Troy for him to put in his wallet. We realised that I had picked up both copies of the credit card slip. This was back before everything was electronic and automatically porcessed. I had picked up both receipts including the part that the shop needed to return to the bank in order to process the charge. By this time we had already hit the highway and were motering towards a wicked day of skiing. Rather too quickly, we decided not to turn around.

We had a great day skiing. The snow was knee deep. We had to use the chains on the way home and Troy dutifully put them on. As we were heading down the east side of the mountain pass, looking for a place to pull over to take them off, one of the chains broke and flapped around. We finally got the car pulled over and surveyed the damage. The entire side panel of the car was beaten and battered. It cost him several hundred dollars to get the side of the car repaired. I just looked at him and said "We should have gone back and paid them for the chains."

One Word: KARMA!