I got mine.
There are occasions when you feel like The Fates are purposely leaving you out of life’s remarkable moments.
Like when you get home, turn on the news and see that an armored vehicle sends thousands in currency fluttering into the air on a stretch of road you drive every day—except for that one day (when you also happened to get a speeding ticket).
Or the time you didn’t feel like waiting in line for a cup of coffee but your spouse did and they tell you after you left the person causing the delay bought drinks and pastries for everyone forced to wait behind him.
Or, of course, when you get up from your marathon session at a slot machine and you are no more than two steps away from your warm seat and you hear the machine paying out to someone else who slid right it.
The “Ah, maaan,” moments. Most of them are pleasant surprises and leave you feeling as though you’re part of an elite group of people. The chosen few designated by the gods to be at a specific place at a specific time.
They are truly organic and unique. Others are contrived.
Like mine.
It wasn’t long after the federal government started taking orders for home delivery of COVID-19 antigen tests that I started reading stories about delays and shortfalls associated with the program. Multiple family households were limited to a total of four tests when there were significantly more than four eligible people in the home. Apartment dwellers were having difficulty requesting their tests because the Feds believed a test had already been sent to the street address. Or tests that had been ordered had yet to arrive or were lost en route.
They’re all legitimate complaints and people are right to be frustrated. At the same time, a rollout of this magnitude—nationwide—could not be reasonably expected to occur without some initial delays.
That’s why when I placed my order I figured I’d see the delivery sometime in February. Or maybe later. Or perhaps enough time would pass that I would even forget I ordered it.
But less than a week after placing the order the four tests were in my mailbox.
As happy as I am to have not been left out, I hope to heaven that I don’t have to use them. I hope the same for you.
