This tale starts last week. My once a week multi-modal commute starts with a ride from town A, through town B, and to town C where I catch a bus at the start of its run. I was almost through town B when I spotted an orphaned woman's running shoe by the side of the road. It's not worth worrying about onesie shoes so I kept going. Fifty feet later, I spotted the other shoe: It was cowering between two traffic lanes like a scared bunny. I stopped, waited for a break in the traffic, retrieved the shoe, and walked back to get the other one. I then noticed I was 100 feet beyond the parking lot exit for a health/fitness club/gym. Aha! Someone must have placed her shoes on the roof of her car, forgotten them, and driven off. So - I biked back to the gym, asked if they had a lost&found, and left the shoes on their front counter.

Problem 1:
As I left the gym, my bike was acting funny - the chain didn't want to freewheel backwards smoothly. I limped the bike downhill to town C where luckily I'm a keyholding volunteer mechanic at a bike co-op. I was able to let myself into the shop, put the bike up in a work stand, and pull out oodles of weeds that had wrapped themselves around the derailleur pulleys.

Problem 2:
Yesterday, my front brakes started grinding as I passed the gym. Limp to the co-op, and spend an hour picking metal shards out of the brake pads. This was supposed to be quick ride to the grocery store and back home.

Problem 3:
Today, as I'm approaching the gym, my back tire goes flat. I roll the bike into the gym's parking lot, and discover there's a huge honking nail in the tire! The nail was through the tire, into the tube, and was poking zillions of holes in the rim side of the tube. 15 minutes, a medium patch on the tread side of the tube, and a monster patch on the other side, and I'm back on the road. I got to the transit center in time to catch the bus I wanted! (Last week I also did.)

So what's next? Why did returning the shoes earn me so much bad karma?