The Heredity By Marriage Factor

Today was a good day. We had good church services and right after church we helped clean up around the church.

Then came a nap.

After the nap, my dad came over and Rachael, my dad, the kids and I all went for a short hike over by Elkhorn Slough. I love (most of the time) watching the incredible energy of children. They are incredible.

I also love seeing the world fresh through their eyes. Watching them as they discover something new allows me to see it for the second first time again. It's pretty cool.

That, however, is not the subject of this post.

On the way back from Elkhorn Slough, we were all talking as we were driving the little-worse-for-the-wear Expedition back to our house.

We passed the Chevron in Prunedale where Rachael severed not one but two of the pump nozzles. I pointed it out to my dad and of course we couldn't help but talk a little bit about it.

That's when my dad said that the conversation reminded him of something my aunt's mother did.

My aunt lives in Montana. Her mother would occasionally come and visit her.

Apparently, on one such visit, her mom came up to a stop sign, but did not notice it was there. She went right through the stop sign and hit someone that was in the intersection. While this is never a good thing, she stopped, made her apologies, made sure everyone was ok, and was soon on her way. I assume insurance handled the details.

Glad to be safely to her daughter's house, she visited her for awhile.

She soon left.

Sometime after that, she was going to visit her daughter (my aunt) again.

She came up to the exact same stop sign as before.

She did not see it, as before.

She went right through it, as before.

She hit a vehicle, just like she did the first time. She got out of her vehicle to give her apologies and make sure everyone was OK.

Imagine her surprise when she saw it was the exact same person in the exact same vehicle as the first time.

What are the odds? I mean, seriously. Stop to think about it. What are the odds of having a collision with the same person in the same car at the same intersection after not seeing the same stop sign?

I actually did the math, and it worked out to be exactly the same odds (1 in 45,853, if you want to know) as driving off three separate times with the hose still firmly inserted in your car and thereby ripping the hose right out of the gas pump.

This got me to start thinking.

Again, what are the odds. I actually figured this out again. The odds of having two separate instances happen, both with odds of 1 in 45,853 would be 1 in (45,853 x 45,853), which works out to 1 in 2,102,497,609. That's a little over 1 in 2 billion.

I don't know about you, but that seems a little too far-fetched to me to be considered coincidence.

I can only think of two rational explanations.

1. You can inherit genes and traits through marriage. When two people are married, they become one. Is it so hard to believe that they may have a melding of the gene pools? I don't know, but something to consider. Why, just the other day, I was driving down the road on the way to Pilot to get some gas, and I had an uncontrollable urge to pull over to the right. When I did, I looked up, and I was at Chevron. Since I was there anyway, I went ahead and got some gas. When I pulled away, I did NOT yank the hose out of the pump, but I could have. With my marital genetic disposition, I was probably, practically, almost close to somewhere near certainly predestined to do so. I guess it's a good thing I don't believe in predestination, or I'd probably owe Chevron $442 and I'd have to start my own blog to pay for it.

2. Rachael had heard the story of my aunt's mom's adventures with the unseen stop sign and just knew that she could do better. Sometimes getting people to laugh can be worth almost any price you have to pay, even if it is $442 and at least a small amount of publicity. I am a bit worried, though. The odds were exactly the same. If theory number 2 is correct, we may be in for an unwelcome blog post in the future, when Rachael has another Chevron incident, just to be sure she can beat out my aunt's mom.

After considering the two options, I really don't think Rachael has intentionally done any of this. If I had not lived with her for a little over 14 years and personally witnessed many zany accounts of Life With Rachael, I might not be able to believe that any one person could have so many accidental incidents in one life time. But, alas, I have witnessed enough to be a true believer.

Which leaves me with only one possible theory.

Somehow, Rachael and my aunt's mom are sharing at least a portion of the same gene pool.

We'll just hope that Rachael decides that she doesn't like to go swimming very often.

I'm not sure if Chevron (or I) can handle it.


-The Poor Husband