Fifty Plus (50+) - Without bad luck, I'd have none at all...

It's really getting discouraging...

A few days ago my daughter had a car accident and totaled the car I bought her four months ago. She tried to over-correct and ended up doing a 360 into a guard rail. She is okay, thank God. The car is wasted. In a few days, I'll learn what the insurance company considers fair value. I'm sure I'm out quite a bit from the "fair market value" I bought it for (Kelly Blue Book).

Today I was out cycling, and got home only to discover my bike bag was open, and the keys were missing. They must have fallen out. I check that zipper EVERY time I ride; I'm obsessive about it. Obviously, I forgot today.

As I waited for my daughter to come by (she was with a friend) to let me in, I began thinking about what else can go wrong since these things often come in threes. It was only then that I realized I'd also put my wallet in the bike bag -- and sure enough, it was gone.

Naturally, I had just gone to the ATM this morning and withdrawn $200.

Tonight I'm calling the credit card companies and so on. But what worries me is that I have business travel next week, and I don't know whether the DMV can do a replacement license that quickly. Their website talks about an interim license valid for 60 days -- but that's no picture ID, so now what?

I really, really need this business trip!

I am pretty discouraged. Nothing but bad news lately. I am grateful my daughter wasn't hurt, of course. But she starts a new job this week, and junior college next week, and I just don't know what's going to happen...

If I don't post with my usual feeble attempts at humor for a while, perhaps you'll understand. (Maybe even be relieved!)

Read "The Message of a Master" by John McDonald, New world library. You can order it at Barnes & Noble for $8.95. It will change the way you think, and you will be way less distracted. bk

This too shall pass, Deeg. And when it does, I'm gonna hit you up for a loan.

DG,
Hopefully an honest individual will find your wallet/keys and return them to you. Best of luck!

I just know I'm going to leave my bag zipper open some day and lose my keys/wallet/cell phone/etc. I've already left it mostly open once and got lucky when nothing fell out. And I've been known to leave certain other zippers open from time to time. ;)

Hope you get a fair settlement on the car and that your daughter is truly okay.

And maybe someone will return your wallet. That happens, oftimes sans cash.

I found a wallet while riding just around the corner from my house. I must have been the first person to go by. It was right in the middle of the street, one well-traveled by walking kids. It had $260 and credit cards. The only way I could get it to the owner was the lucky chance that he had a pay stub with his employer's phone number on it. No where in his wallet was an address or phone number. A lesson for us all.

Just today, I scanned every item in my wallet and have a copy of the two pages in my file box. I will have all the info I need if I should have the DG experience.

I feel your pain, DG. I hope the wallet, keys and daughter are all returned to you in good shape.

Money, ID and keys always go on one of my jersey's back pockets not in the bag!

Gary,

The past six months of my life has been one negative event after another, just as you are now experiencing. Some small things, some big. There are times when I really wonder if it's worth going on. Nothing works. Money barely trickles in, then it goes out again before I even know it's there. I go for bike rides, and they are fun "in the moment." But deep down, I know that so many things are wrong in my life that I can't truly enjoy the ride.

I even went through a period where I broke a spoke on three successive rides...with only one broken spoke in the previous 11 years. But my problems aren't on the bike...but rather "real problems." Relatives seriously ill and refusing to take care of themselves. Financial matters going south at every turn. People I've known and worked with for decades suddenly not returning calls or e-mails. In-law conflicts after being married almost 30 years. Totalling my car in the first auto accident I've ever had.

I couldn't be more different than my father, and yet, I'm having the same bad experiences at the same period in my life as he did, 35 years later. I deliberatley took a different turn at every critical juncture of my life, for the sole purpose of not falling into the same traps he did...and yet here I am, having the same experiences and feeling the same bad feelings about myself and my life as he did. How can that be???

I think the times we live in are strange, but that's not unusual. Things always change, and older people are left in the dust.

I think that by now, surely, I should have a handle on money and happiness and self confidence. But I don't. I really believe that the culture and economic system we live in sets us up for expectations that can't be fullfilled. We will never get a handle on life and the problems it throws at us. A "relaxed retirement" is pretty hopeless for most people. "Old age and wisdom it brings" is a load of crap.

My mother, who is 89, moved into a retirement community...and moved out 6 days later. The politics and cliques were overwhelming to her. It was, as the saying goes, "high school with wheelchairs." She realized she'd rather take her chances living in her home by herself.

It's funny how the little things really get to us. Losing your keys is small, but becomes huge when it's combined with losing your wallet and your daughter wrecking her car...all with a business trip jeopardized because of it.

I have no point in saying all of this, really. Just letting you know you're not alone, and that we really appreciate you and your creative energy. This forum would totally suck without you...

Oh, by the way, your ex has a new line of t-shirts... :D

D.G. I'm sure your resourcefulnes and humor will get you and your daughter through these
bumps in the road. Your posts have certainly helped me over some of my own. I'll understand
an absence but will also greatly look forward to your return.

Big Paulie. Hang in there. Remember, only you can be you, and only you can know
how to be you. I often get very depressed, in fact it seems to happen every three months or so, I don't know why but it seems to be cyclical. I share many of the same regrets you posted. Don't like who I am, can't stop my too small income from gushing out through my family's spending habits.
One lousy raise in 13 years after 36 years of service with great performance
appraisals. Then for no apparent reason, none of that stuff matters anymore...(for
about three months anyway). I'll assume that you and I are normal and we should just
keep slugging along through the fog that is this world we live in. Gotta go to work now, they're handing out packages this morning....annual Christmas downsizing again. 6% of the workforce this year. Sighhhhhh.

The responses here have really been special. Thank you all! I realize all this stuff I'm complaining about is just stuff, but it's still tough sometimes and like Big Paulie, I get to wondering what's the point? I get one step ahead once in a while, and then WHAM! two steps back.

Maybe I brought it on myself. After all, I bought a white bike.

Remember D.G. (as I'm sure you're aware) had any harm come to your daughter,
all the other stuff would have been strickly incidental. How careless of me not to
mention how great it is that she, the most important person mentioned in you post,
is O.K. !!!!!!!!!!!! Poor thing, I bet she feels terrible.

Best of luck to you both.

Best of luck to you both.

+1
Just showing up for life everyday with a smile on your face is what it's all about. If you want that bad luck to turn to good you have to keep 'showing up for life'.

Hang in there guys. Just hang in there.

You will get over this. You teach people how to get up and get moving right.

Next order of business. Ride pack: no wallet, ID (is it legal to carry a laminated copy of a drivers liscence if you are not operating a motor vehicle), 1 credit card (I have one card designated for risky use....limited carry, internet parts etc, use it for no regular business), 1 key (have a secret key somewhere near home but not near doors), medical information if necessary and a card with names of people to call if your down. The pack should be designed to minimize problems when lost.

Glad to hear your daughters ok, thats the one that really matters.

Sometimes bad things happen to good people, just hang in there. Maybe someone nice will find and return your wallet. I assume that you don't have a passport, otherwise you could use that for your trip, rental car would be a problem though.

If I find your wallet I'm going to go to Tijuana and party down.

Glad to hear your daughter is okay...the car can be replaced.

I think many of us have been through those periods where everything seems to go wrong. The best we can do is just tackle one problem at a time and continue on. Hopefully some honest person will find the wallet and return it.

For future reference....make a copy of your identification and insurance card to place in your bike bag. I also have a Road-Id bracelet I wear while riding. I usually carry just enough money for the ride and a credit card for emergencies.

DG, It all (the car, the wallet) can be replaced. In a couple of months this will become an amusing story. Keep smiling.

Echoing what the others have said--sometimes bad things happen. But we just pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and start all over again. Glad that no one is hurt, physically at least.

Re the drivers license, around here, if you're patient enough to wait in line for several hours at the DMV, you can get a new replacement license with picture issued on the spot. Replacement ATM cards can be overnight mailed to your bank (no fee at at my bank--this has happened way too often.) For a fee, a new credit card can be overnight mailed to you. No reason that business trip can't happen.

Good luck to you now, DG.

Have you re-ridden the route you took? You might find them. Stranger things have happened.

I am glad your daughter wasn't hurt. Things can be replaced.

Praying for you and her.

Willis

200 dollars!!! TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS!!!!

He withdrew 200 dollars.... CASH!

I'd be tearin' up the route I rode, checking every pothole and storm drain.

Sorry DG.

*****walking away shaking head and thinking about the 22.50 in my checking account********

Hey DG, THINGS can be replaced. Inconvenience for sure and possibly some monetary loss, but in the big picture it's just another bump in the road of life. Your daughter is OK, you're out a couple bucks and you learned yet another life lesson. Three years ago cancer took my wonderful wife of 40 years. She died in my arms. I found cycling and golf can temporarily numb my brain but I can't do that stuff all day and all night .. those empty hours are really bad. Some people may say you should be over it by now .. those people don't have a clue! If you saw someone on the street without arms or legs you could feel compassion, but you can't see a hole in someone's heart. So buck up mate, figure it out (I know you will) and get a new fly for your nose.

They say it could always gets worse and it did. After my wife had a stroke, we got home and she kept falling. Long story short, all last week she was in intensive care. Before the hospital bit we were in doctors offices for 4 out of 5 days, once for 7 hours. She was low 4 units of blood, bleeding ulcer. Then besides that, all those people you don't care to meet, are everywhere. I think Houston is like the united nations, but that's another story. For what it's worth, while riding, and I haven't been doing much of that, I found keys. It took me some effort to get them to there owners, but they where pretty happy to get them back. But don't take it to hard, I know, it always could be worse, I could go on, and on, and sometimes I wish I could crawl into a hole, but that's the golden years I guess. I hope everything works out for you Gary. Oh, you can get a temporary license, I've been that road more than once with my kid, good luck.

I think most of us have gotten this far in life because of our ability to laugh at ourselves and life in general.
Keep yukking it up, you've all been through this kind of crap before. It ain't nothin' new:beer:

Sometimes there are stretches where everything possible goes wrong or turns bad. This happens whether the rest of you life is feeling good or hopelessly sad. It's like hitting a giant pothole for a couple days before things return to whatever its normal state is. If you're lucky, you can just stay in bed.

You have the love of your daughter and friends. You're able to ride a bike. You have a lot.

Sorry for the bad luck. Glad daughter is ok. Keep on digging--life is good. Think of the alternative.

I'm generally a pretty optimistic person but, like everyone, there are times that get me down. I remember a line from an old Who song that goes, "This is no social crisis, it's just another tricky day" I look around and see so many others that are dealing with problems so much more serious that mine that I just look up and say Thanks. Hang in there...

I lost my wallet out of my unzipped wedge a few years ago. Someone found it and called me. I gave them a nice reward. Perhaps, just perhaps, yours will be found and returned.

Around here you can go to the DMV and have a replacement driver's license processed on-the-spot, picture and all. Don't know about CA. My wife had to do that recently when she had her wallet stolen.

As far as bad luck and things going bad, you don't really want to know my story (actually, you probably already have). Just that, given everything, this morning I am alive and well, took a loonngg walk instead of a ride this am, and I am typing this message to you. Things WILL get better, and this truly is a bump (although a large bump) and you will get through it just fine. You will figure things out.

BTW - do you have a passport? ThaT WILL WORK

A few days ago my daughter had a car accident and totaled the car I bought her four months ago. She is okay, thank God. The car is wasted.

I am by nature a pessimist so maybe I shouldn’t be the one giving advice but here goes . . . Your daughter is okay! It could have been a lot worse.

DG, I'm sorry about your series of mishaps, and so glad your daughter is OK. I'm wondering if you retraced your route to find your wallet.

When I was going through a VERY hard time years ago, someone told me that it's OK to feel sad, that don't need to feel good to do something, I just need to do it. That enabled me to stop wasting energy trying to feel good, and to just be polite and friendly to others (that doesn't mean smiling all day or being the life of the party) and to just put one foot in front of the other and get up, go to work, and do whatever I needed to do, daily. In time, it passed, but that single piece of practical advice has been invaluable to me in dark times.

I hope things will be brighter for you very soon. We'll miss you, and your humor too!

And if I find the keys, I'm gonna come over to your house and eat all your food and drink all your wine and steal your women. See? It could be worse....

Sorry to hear about these latest troubles. Things never seem to get any easier, huh.

The point made earlier about not carrying a wallet on a bike is a good one. I keep an ID in my bike bag, but leave my wallet at home.

An early memory of mine is from my parents "party room" in the basement. A joke placard read, "Everyone said 'cheer up --things could be worse', so I cheered up and, sure enough, things got worse"

It has strangely given me a continued stoic perspective on life all this time. When nothing seems right, all you really have to do is keep going, one step in front of the other. Anna Nalick did a song called "2:AM (Breathe)" that seems to say the same thing - just breathe (and keep posting to this forum. We mostly enjoy it.)

Progress report:

My mood has lifted as I just got busy taking care of everything. Yes, I retraced my ride last evening but no joy.

Called the CC companies; they're mailing new cards. Went to DMV this morning -- they only issue a paper interim license (no photo) and the new license will come in a few weeks. Called Southwest Airlines and they said I should be okay with my expired license (thank goodness I saved that for some reason -- it expired in 1999!), and with the interim license.

Next I have to buy a new wallet and get keys made.

I've learned some valuable lessons the hard way. When the dust settles on the keys and wallet issues, I will do several things differently: ID for the bike, not license, scan of all my wallet cards so I know immediately who to call, and extra copies of the keys, hidden from thieves but accessible to me. Shame on me because I knew all this stuff already, but fell into the "it can't happen to me" trap.

I suppose I should generalize my lesson and apply it to wills, living wills, out of date beneficiaries, you name it! I mean, how many wake up calls should it take?

Given all that COULD have happened, I consider myself inconvenienced and very lucky. Perhaps I have good luck after all! :D

Love your attitude, Gary. Just think of the guy you were when you posted this: http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=112457

and then who you are today.........

I'm holding you in the Light, as we Quakers say.

Love your attitude, Gary. Just think of the guy you were when you posted this: http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=112457

and then who you are today.........

I'm holding you in the Light, as we Quakers say.

Thank you for that link, it was a great memory and helps me reframe. I sometimes feel so stoooopid when I forget the obvious life lessons over and over and over. Like that this wallet and keys thing is SO small stuff.

Anyway, so far ain't met a problem that can't be made smaller, at least, by a good bike ride.

Super going DG. From all bad things an opportunity springs to find a better way. Now I'm going to go and do the same thing with the cards in my wallet....:)

DG, I am very glad things are looking better to you today! Also, you and BP are a couple of my favorite posters on this forum!

Statistically your "luck" is no worse than anyones. It always seems that you get in line to pay for something and the guy in front of you has an item with no price tag or whatever.

As to the travel and picuture ID. Do you have a passport? About as offical as it gets.

Thank you for that link, it was a great memory and helps me reframe. I sometimes feel so stoooopid when I forget the obvious life lessons over and over and over. Like that this wallet and keys thing is SO small stuff.

Anyway, so far ain't met a problem that can't be made smaller, at least, by a good bike ride.

+1 on the riding

In case you want wallet suggestions, I direct you to http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=169062&highlight=wallet

Why guess who posted there????

Anyway the wallet is at http://all-ett.com/

I got one an really like it a lot. Fits easily into a jersey pocket. and is thin, thin in a pants pocket.

Aiee! The first thing gets you off balance and it takes the second and third to show you that you are off. Been there done that.

You have my empathy.

A little meditating or quiet time to rediscover your center will help. If it's any help, I've gotten onto planes using my Costco membership card. Admittedly that was pre 9/11. ;)

Good luck to you. I hope your wallet turns up.

Given all that COULD have happened, I consider myself inconvenienced and very lucky. Perhaps I have good luck after all! :D


Now, about that loan....

"Without bad luck, I'd have none at all..."

I'm sorry but when I read your title a song went thru my brain.

“Gloom, despair and agony on me
Deep, dark depression
Excessive misery
If it weren't for bad luck
I'd have no luck at all
Gloom, despair and agony on me”

Can you tell my parents loved HEE HAW in my formulative years?

Good luck with all your troubles, they are only temporary!

TJ

I found a wallet while riding just around the corner from my house. I must have been the first person to go by. It had $260 and credit cards. No where in his wallet was an address or phone number.

I wonder if you couldn't call the phone # on the credit card(s) and report that you found them.
I'm sure the card company would be able to contact the owner; maybe even give him/her your phone number to contact. I don't know how much info they want people to share in that kind of situation.

I've always read articles on safety/theft that tell you not to keep your home address anywhere near your keys, to avoid break-ins. Pretty sad.

Sorry to hear about all your troubles, DG. As if the car wreck weren't bad enough. You might have trouble replacing your credit cards before you travel. When I lost my credit card (only 1, thank God) I had to wait 8-10 days for the new one to be mailed.

If you get into this situation, you might be able to get by with asking for a new bank card (debit/credit).
Sometimes those can be mailed to you faster than a "regular" credit card.

But HOPING that somebody finds your stuff and tries to return it first!

DG, I am very glad things are looking better to you today! Also, you and BP are a couple of my favorite posters on this forum!

Hey Gary! We can still pull chicks!!! ;)

:D:D:D

"Without bad luck, I'd have none at all..."

I'm sorry but when I read your title a song went thru my brain.

“Gloom, despair and agony on me
Deep, dark depression
Excessive misery
If it weren't for bad luck
I'd have no luck at all
Gloom, despair and agony on me”

Can you tell my parents loved HEE HAW in my formulative years?

Good luck with all your troubles, they are only temporary!

TJ

That is depressing. :(

You could have remembered:

"Born under a bad sign
I've been down since I began to crawl
If it weren't for bad luck
I wouldn't have no luck at all"

Hey Gary! We can still pull chicks!!! ;)

:D:D:D

Woohoo!

Hey Gary! We can still pull chicks!!! ;)

:D:D:D

Around here, we have to sometimes pull a calf. Chicks come out of eggs and don't require no pullin.;)

You know, I was just thinking maybe it would do you some good to count your blessings and think about some of the burdens that others have to bear that you don't. I mean you could have to spend all your money on college books for your lovely daughter or something... Thank goodness you don't have THAT to fret about!