Pretty Sure My Karma Tally Is Still Positive

As you may have gleaned from previous exposure to Val's tales...she has the opinion that Even Steven and Karma keep her life in check. That what she puts out to The Universe is what she gets back. Even the ruthless murder of yesterday's wood bee has been balanced by the capture and release of other critters Val found, or Hick gave her.

Like the time she found a four-inch millipede on her grandma's toenail rug in her dark basement lair, and had Genius trap it under a bowl until Hick got home from work and could throw it outside. And that time her old dog Grizzly alerted her to a 3-foot-long black snake about to eat a nest of baby bunnies, and she had Hick scoop it up on a stick and toss it down in the woods. And that time Hick and Genius teamed up to bring a big spider, found down by the creek, to her dark basement lair, and wave it in her face, and she told Genius to let it go back down at the creek, and Hick put it on a tree trunk in the goat pen.

Let the record show that I TOLD Hick to put that spider back where he got it, and HE is the one who did not follow instructions. I think it might have been a dolomedes fishing spider, and a tree trunk in the goat pen was not its preferred habitat. Karma, take note! I had the right intentions.

You may also recall that Val is pretty lucky where scratch-off tickets are concerned. And that she is not shy about spreading the wealth.

Last weekend, Hick went to Kansas to visit Genius. While he was gone, HOS (Hick's Oldest Son) came to feed and water the animals so I didn't have to. When we take off for Oklahoma to visit The Pony on a three or four day trip, HOS always helps out. I used to pay him cash for that, because he lived over in Bill-Paying Town then, and stopped by on his way to work. Now that he lives on our other piece of land, within a four-wheeler ride away, Hick says I don't need to give HOS anything. But I do. I give him scratch-off tickets. One time he had a $100 winner on a $10 ticket. Last time, he only won $2. That's why it's called gambling, not winning.

I had five tickets for Hick to give HOS this time. Hick never does anything quite the way I plan. He kept coming up with reasons why he hadn't give HOS the tickets yet. And it wasn't until Saturday, a week later, that he handed them over from their resting place on our kitchen table.

Saturday afternoon, HOS sent me a text of thanks. With a picture of his winners, though I can't see the detail enough to decipher it. HOS said that he won $73 on his tickets, for which I'd paid $25.

I'm pretty sure HOS isn't flipping me off in that picture. It's not like we have a beef. We've always gotten along, ever since he was a little shaver, going into second grade when I first met him. And he thanked me TWICE in his texts. So I'm going to assume that he's just holding the tickets on his lap so they don't blow away while he takes the picture. Because it's not like I'm the yearbook editor, and he's trying to sneak in a pic of himself flying the bird.

Looks like my luck is transferable.

And I'm keeping my balance in the black in Even Steven's ledger.