The Law of Distraction

A Simple Story with a Simple Yet Powerful Lesson

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Now that winter’s over, I’m going to share with you a final snow-related story. Although many of my stories are on the longer side, this one is short and simple.

If people in my home state of Maine weren’t paying attention two years ago, they might have thought we went from fall to spring by skipping right over winter. Call it global warming or just plain luck (since I don’t enjoy snow removal), but I only used my snowblower once the entire season. So I hoped this winter would be much of the same.

Looking at my ten-year-old snowblower this winter, I noticed it was looking sad and rusty. I wasn’t sure it was going to start this year considering I had to pull the starter pulley dozens of times the prior winter before I could get it going. Nevertheless, this year, I kept procrastinating bringing it in for a tune-up until it was too late—the weather person predicted a nor’easter.

I commented to Melissa, “I’ll just shovel like the old days. The exercise will be good for me.”

So I shoveled the snow after the first two inches had fallen, hoping to remove the flakes two or three inches at a time. At one point, the storm had turned up the volume. The next time I looked out the window, another ten inches had fallen.

“No problem,” I said to Melissa, as I pulled up my belt doing my best Don Knotts impression, “I’ll have the driveway shoveled in a jiffy.”

As I began to shovel this time, however, the snow was made of lead. No exaggeration, someone must’ve mixed ball bearings in with the snowflakes. After ten minutes of shoveling, I told Melissa, “I’m going to see if I can get the snowblower going.”

She quickly handed me the key to the snowblower like she had known this would happen all along.

Melissa walked down to the barn with me. I checked the snowblower for gas.

“Crap, year-old gas.”

Melissa looked at me, “Is that bad?”

It was bad. But it didn’t really matter because I didn’t have any fresh gas to use.

“This is going to take about a hundred pulls before this darn thing starts,” I predicted.

“That’s a bad affirmation to tell yourself,” Melissa said. “You of all people should know better.”

I ignored her comment and began pulling the starter pulley.

I pulled and pulled, but the snowblower didn’t even twitch. I pulled with my right hand. I pulled with my left hand. I fiddled with the choke. I pushed on the primer. I moved the gas lever up and down. Nothing worked, not even a sputter. I caught my breath and pulled some more until little beads of sweat began to form on my forehead.

After literally pulling on this thing about a hundred times, I admitted defeat. “I surrender,” I told Melissa, as I put my cold hands into my pockets.

She looked at me sadly, knowing that I’d just worn myself out for shoveling and that was now my only option.

My eyes opened wide. “Oh my God!”

“What’s the matter?”

I pulled my hand out of my pocket, holding the key to the snowblower. “I forgot to put the key in.”

I put the key in the snowblower, pulled the starter pulley three times, and it fired up and ran like a brand-new machine.

I looked at Melissa with a smirk and raised my shoulders.

She made sure I learned my lesson by saying, “Well, you said it was going to take a hundred pulls before it started. You got what you asked for.”

I was too tired to respond, but in my head I saw the evening news headline, “Man Chases Wife Through the State of Maine with Snowblower.”

xoxo, Bob

PS, I like to end my stories with a life lesson that I learned from the experience. However, just like this story, I think I can sum up the lesson with a simple quote.

"We tend to get what we expect." ~ Norman Vincent Peale

Bob Olson says, “I love your comments. Let’s chat.”

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Bob Olson is the host of Afterlife TV, author of two books, Answers About The Afterlife and The Magic Mala, and creator of the reputable directory of psychics and mediums, BestPsychicDirectory.com. His newest venture is Bob Olson Connect, where you can read Bob’s articles before they become books.

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