God and Me and Numbers

It's been quite a while since I wrote anything on here... Sorry.  Been busy!  (or lazy, whichever... ;-)

Today I want to tell you a story about God and me and numbers...  I'll add to the stories on this subject as times goes on, and I have a few spare minutes.

Back when I was ten, my family of 5 siblings and 2 parents moved from one small town to another smaller town, packing all our belongings in a railroad boxcar to be delivered to our new home.  My dad worked for the Railroad as the ticket agent in a one-man depot.  The boxcar number we packed all our stuff in was 11975.  I've known that number since 1966.  There is no logical reason why I remembered the number, and I have no recollection of even seeing it.  Daddy insisted I was wrong about the number, that such a number didn't belong to boxcars.  A few decades later he looked it up - somehow: and I was right!!

Time marched on.... and on.

In 2001 I was married, and moved from a small city to a smaller city.  My husband and I looked and looked for a place to live, since his house was very small.  After we moved in to our new place it dawned on me that the house number was almost the same as the boxcar - 11793.  In the entire county, the only house number with 11795 was in the same town as our place and was on Spencer Street!  (That's my maiden name, you know.)  However, since 11795 was a vacation shanty, I don't suppose one could expect that a family of 2 adults and one 17 year old could live there, so 11793 was as close as one could get.  That made me smile.  :-)

Prior to being married, I bought a used Honda - love those Accords!  It's not like I needed a new car, or even the used but not abused one that I bought.  I was feeling a bit guilty for having spent the money on a different car instead of fixing the one I had. Buyer's remorse, I guess.

One day shortly after moving in at 11793, I realized that our phone hadn't rung even once, so I called our number.  I should have gotten a busy signal, but someone's phone rang - somewhere!  Not at our house!  I hung up before anyone or an answering machine answered.  I hied my little self down to the telephone company office and asked them what our phone number was.  The clerk looked a bit surprised at such a question, but looked it up.  It was a completely different number from what we had originally been given!  'We decided to change it before you moved in,' said the clerk.  No reason, no notice, they just changed it!  Strange.

You want to know what was even more strange??  Shortly after discovering that our phone number had been changed, I was looking for something in the glove compartment of the car.  I suppose I did find what I was looking for, but that's not what sticks in my memory.   I found a round key tag with the key number - a courtesy on the part of someone.  In case I were to loose my key, the dealership could make a new key with that number.

It was the same as the last for digits of our new (and unsolicited) phone number!!

Okay, Lord.  Evidently You didn't mind if I bought the car.  Thanks!  (And, just so you know, I put over 200K miles on that car before I got rid of it when moving to the Big City, where I refused to drive for 6 months!)

It's sooo much fun watchin' God!