So today Karma has reared it’s fateful and misshapen head.

Many years ago I had moved to the east coast and, being unfamiliar with the local methods of home heating, was introduced to the concept of fuel oil.

The house we rented was built in 1810 and had a 1000 gallon oil tank buried in the yard to feed the furnace but alas, it had no gauge so we just had to guess when we needed to fill the tank. Also, not having the money to buy a thousand gallons of fuel at a time, I bought just enough to get through each month and inevitably would run out causing me to call the fuel company for an emergency delivery.

Mark, our trusty driver would come out and cheerfully dole out however much fuel we ordered and we’d give him cookies or cakes or whatever we’d made that day.

The caveat is that each time we ran out it was unfailingly on a major holiday.

We ran out on Christmas Day one year and New Year’s Day the next.

Thanksgiving.
Easter.
Valentine’s Day.

It became a joke and Mark would leave with the parting shot “See you on the next holiday!”

Today, Christmas Eve, at 7:30 pm I got a call that a tenants oven had gone out in the middle of cooking the family feast for tomorrow and I immediately thought of Mark.

Without a second thought I got into the car and went out to fix the problem, chuckling to myself the whole time and hoping that Mark, wherever he is, feels the karma rolling back around