Wonderful Morning

I'm having the most wonderful morning, and it's not even 9 am yet. Last night we got home around midnight from a Tori Amos concert, and as usual for Miami Beach, there was no parking anywhere near our building. So I did what I usually do, park in the Day Car just around the corner. Normally it's not a problem to park there overnight as long as I get up very early and move the car before their day starts.

Guess what happened this morning...
I completely forgot about moving the car (even though I've been awake since 6 am), and by the time I was leaving for the synangogue at 7:30 am, the car had been towed. To top it all off, my wife lent her car yesterday to her mother, so our usually-available second car was 15 miles away. And to put a cherry on top, to get the car back, I need to pay $170 PLUS have the car's actual owner (that would be my father-in-law, who lives 25 miles south of me) come to the towing company's office. So in less than 2 hours since being awake, I have already lost $170, my composure, and inconvenienced both my in-laws. Peachy!!!

All that and I have yet to do my morning prayers; can't concentrate at the moment.

I see this as a divine slap on the wrist, though. We are in the time leading to Tisha B'Av (lit. 9th of Av), and in this period, especially in the nine days preceding it, we are not supposed to listen to live music, as it is supposed to be a time of mourning and reflection. We bought the tickets to the concert months ago without realizing the concert would be smack in the middle of the nine days. We went, and we enjoyed it, but my gut feeling is that this event is a small disciplinary action, a warning, if you will.

Now, off to get all this taken care of.