Opinion

LAST MINUTE MUSINGS: What’s in a number?

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Not too much at all

In a past life, I was a sports editor. When I’m not working, or even when I am, I’m thinking about sports, specifically the facts, figures and trivia of it all.

Numbers like 56, 23 and 5 all have meaning, whether they indicate hitting streaks, jersey numbers or number of NCAA titles won by my favorite college basketball team.

When I notice some of those magical digits in my daily life, I can’t help but smile.

And so I took it as a good sign when I sold some stuff to Half Price Books Tuesday and got $33 back.

All right, Larry Legend!

If you take in some old books, movies and games and get Larry Bird out of it, that has to be a good sign, right?

Wrong.

As I put the cash in my wallet, I looked out the front window and my greedy grin faded.

Rain. Buckets of it.

Unfortunately, I had to make it back to work through that storm so I ventured out against my better judgment.

As I approached downtown Plainfield, the rain was at its worst. My truck sits high, so I didn’t worry too much about the standing water until I heard a “DING” and notice the “Check Gauges” light on my dash.

Glancing around, I finally noticed that the battery gauge was all the way to the left, indicating a low battery.

I tried to decide what to do, but quickly realized my truck was either going to die or it wasn’t. The best thing I could do was try to get back to Greencastle, through yet another ridiculous storm.

There was high water. There was awful visibility. There was the ever-present threat that my truck’s electrical system was on the verge of failure. (It wasn’t, thankfully.)

I got home and backed in the driveway so there would be easy access if the truck needed a jump.

I turned off the ignition, gulped, and then tried to start it again. The ol’ girl sputtered to life and the battery gauge returned to its normal position.

A satisfying ending, to be sure, but it made that $33 kind of seem meaningless.

What number mattered to be at that point?

One, as in, I made it home in one piece.