dime_novel_hero | Absenthe & Iron Gathering

Absinthe & Iron, a steampunk group on Facebook, was having a winter get together in State College yesterday. It would be an opportunity for me to meet with steampunks. . . well, not in my local area but at least in the state. It seems that most people in the group, or those that said they were going to be showing up, were from the central part of the state. Connections like that could be useful when I go to the Steampunk World's Fair in New Jersey in the spring. I could get a roommate to defray hotel costs and pick them up on the way since, so far, the steampunks in the Pittsburgh area are generally inactive.

There was about 4 or 5 inches of snow and it took me a little longer to shovel the driveway, get a shower, get dressed in my steampunky finery and get on the road. Google maps said that it would be a 2.5 hour drive and I left with only a half hour extra, falsly thinking the roads would have been better than they were. It was pretty slow going and it ended up taking me an extra hour to get to State College but I didn't think it was that bad. I've driven in worse weather for lesser reasons. Heck, I've ridden my bike in worse conditions.

I have never walked into an absolutely empty restaurant before. It turns out that the hostess had canceled the event and there was no way I would have known because by the time she did so I was already on my way.

It looks like my week of bad luck is going to extend into a second week.

Or, perhaps not. I read an article online a few weeks ago about a study of lucky people. Or rather, a study of people who seemed lucky. It was found that so-called lucky people were more observant and attentive to detail than their unlucky counterparts. They weren't, in fact, favored by the universe but were merely better prepared to see subtle opportunities and take advantage of them.

In my case, if I were more attentive to the world, I would have realized that, even though I didn't think the roads were so bad as to cancel my plans, most other people are not like me. I could have easily concluded that others might cancel due to the weather and had I taken proactive steps to determine if this were true, I could have saved myself the trip.

If I had been more observant, I could have discovered the particular cause of whatever it was that was causing my bike tire to go flat five times in three days.

If I had been more observant, I would have known that hubs are a standard size and to fit my 7-gear cassette requires a spacer. I could have made sure that I had such a spacer before leaving the bike shop when I picked up my new wheel instead of grousing about getting the wrong wheel for a week.

I haven't been unlucky, I simply haven't been paying attention.