Thirteen

I do not suffer from triskaidekaphobia although I do need to trim my fingernails. Which has nothing to do with the number thirteen or the fear of it unless I had avoided trimming said nails on Friday the 13th to circumvent the possibility of personal injury or perhaps just doing a lousy job of it. I realized that the fingernails need a trim because I am typing, the speed and accuracy of this activity are compromised by the current length of my nails. Am I digressing? There is a movie currently in theatres titled 1408. This number refers to a hotel room bearing the number in which horrible, nasty things happen to the unfortunate souls who check into room 1408. If you add up the digits, 1+4+8, the answer is 13. The only reason this is the least bit significant to me personally is that I have been living in a house with that number for twenty-one years! And I had been under the impression for that entire time that 1408 adds up to 22. Since I say the number, fourteen-oh-eight, obviously 14+8=22. I don't pronounce the house number onethousandfourhundredeight so it never occurred to me to add up the digits in that manner. So, blinders on or denial or whatever, I have been living in house #13 for nearly half my life. Which explains a few things, maybe, or maybe not. And does it matter that I just recently recognized this? Does my knowledge or ignorance of this fact influence the bad luck factor? I don't know much about numerology but I have read about people consulting a numerologist about the deeper meaning of the numerical address before they move into a residence. But then what real significance lies in the number that is assigned to a property anyway? Our human consciousness likes the idea of creating order out of the randomness of the universe. We measure and name the particulars of our environment perhaps because it gives us a feeling of control and comfort. I like how Hank Harris expresses this in his song, Water of Life.

Man marks the passage of time
His little invention, counting down our lives

Coincidentally, I heard Hank perform Water of Life on this past Friday the thirteenth with some help from two of the Hegg brothers of Spooncat! fame. And as I said to Anna as we sat under a beautiful summer night sky eating some wonderful thin-crust pizza as we listened to excellent live music, I think it's much more interesting that 1408 is divisible by both 11 and 22. And if you divide 1408 by 2, you get 704. On our calendar, 7-04 is the Fourth of July, the date that we celebrate our nation's birthday. Aside from that, I do hope Hank collected enough cash to afford the gas for his return trip to Rapid City. Although I wouldn't mind it a bit if he was stranded on this end of the state for an extended period of time.