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In a little bit of coincidence, both @preparedwombat and my wife sent me messages within two minutes of each other about getting a gas heater, but unfortunately, the shops were closed that sold them. However, today I did go and get one, as well as a new composite gas bottle, and another connection. The connector didn't work, so I ended up using the new hose, with an old connector from the barbecue and after a bit of fiddling, we have a heater.

>But the house is getting colder. 

![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/tarazkp/23xevYbRgomr4bg5zcnHrB7SdctvGSVt5b23CZdqYv94Dm3V6Fh3A4PjvnCcSTfy2vfP5.png)

I had a conversation with a professional psychologist today about whether she believes in luck, and she said that she shouldn't, but does a little bit. I added, that I am starting to wonder if I am just unlucky, because even when prepared, things that should work, don't. For instance, with the heating, I get that there are more and less qualified people, and everyone has bad days, but we have dealt with about six people in the last few days, and only one has done their job. 

For instance, right now there are guys here (who are really nice) changing the heating unit over, but they got here at 330pm, when they were meant to be here at 9am. They came in last night from another city 250 kilometers (150mi) away, and then called this morning to say they were on their way. After wondering where they got to, they called back an hour later, and the unit they were picking up, wasn't at the supplier at all. Instead, they had to drive to another city to get one, which is 180 km away on backroads, making it at least a five hour trip.

>Our luck. 

So, now they are here changing the unit, which will take a while and means that there is no heating in the house at all, which is why the temperature is still dropping. It is now 10°C (50°F) inside, and will likely drop a few more degrees before they get the unit in, *if* they get the unit in tonight. Then, it will take time to reheat the water, before it can circulate it through the radiators.

![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/tarazkp/23vYmQZ66HyPaPECPqVu95pkYmkgwewQMZ9oYRTCyPZ3TbbKogaR9FbfARddYdFMC7rxw.png)

>Are some people born lucky, while others are born unlucky? 

In general, I have a belief that we "make our own luck" in the sense that if we perform the right preparatory actions, when opportunities arise, we can take advantage of them, which makes it look like luck. However, doing the right things, doesn't mean getting the desired outcomes, which means that it is possible that there are some people who get more of the share of positive outcomes given the same preparation, than others who get less, despite them doing the "right" things. 

>Some people seem to always fall on their feet.
Some people seem to always fall down the stairs.

*I shouldn't have bought a house with multiple floors, because I apparently have poor footing.*

>A charmed life. A cursed life.

Which do you think you lead? 

As I was talking with this psychologist, I did mention that I don't think that I am totally unlucky, as I do recognize a lot of lucky situations in my life also. I acknowledge that in some respects, especially depending on individual experiences of people who might be reading this, I am privileged. But, comparing across very different circumstances doesn't work, as there is too much variation. It is like those "happiest country" rankings - which are useless. Things have to be compared at the local level, where there is at least a *similar* denominator. 

So, perhaps a better question is, 

>In comparison to friends, family and your local population, are you lucky?

For me, this is also a little hard to gauge in Finland, because I am from a bit of a different background, and have a very different upbringing and support structure than most of the people who surround me. However, in general and after talking with a few closer friends about this, they often enough say "how do these things keep happening to you?", which is a pretty good indicator that they are outlier events, but seem to be clustering around me. 

>Maybe it is my wife who is the unlucky one.

*After all, she is married to me.* Poor girl.

As you can probably intuit, this post is all a bit tongue in cheek, though belief in luck is probably one of the things that sets us apart from animals.  assume that they don't have the same sense of it, even though they would face a lot of situations that we might attribute to luck, like a *lucky escape* from a predator. Probably, once it catches its breath, it doesn't think too much about it again, let alone attribute the "next lucky escape" as part of a series. Granted, one unlucky moment in the animal kingdom, and that is likely the end of life. 

Which is probably why we as humans get to contemplate whether there is luck or not, because in general, we are all pretty lucky that we weren't born a fish, or a rabbit, or any other animal that tends not to live to maximum age. Most of us get about 80 years on this earth to think about a whole lot of useless things that have nothing to do with our survival.

>Like whether the smell of gas is normal, or there is a leak.

*That might be related to survival.*  


Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]


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