Does Trouble Really Come in Threes?

Remember the old superstition we always heard our parents repeat? At least mine did, maybe it was just the "time", but it seems I've heard that my entire life. It has shown to be true around here the past couple of weeks. But, I find myself thinking...maybe it is just pure coincidence after all. Or...maybe...I think my wise old self has figured out something entirely different. Well,I'll tell you my troubles, then what I have figured out about them. Number one was the water incident earlier in the month. Last week while driving home from Dallas in the dark, the headlight in Hub's car went out for the second time in 6 months. This one sounds like an easy fix, right? Not so, as the entire insides have to be taken apart to replace a little bulb, racking up about a $100. in labor charges. This is not a DIY project. Then this week-end my computer modem died, leaving both Hub and me internet-less so that had to be replaced. My computer is old and needs replacing anyhow, but there are no funds for that. Nor were there funds for all these other things. Now, here is where Barbie figures things out. In the old days, back when we had a steady income, we always kept a "slush fund" for emergencies and things of that nature. Now, during this limited income period, there hasn't been money for a lot of the basics, let alone any emergency slush fund or things that inevitably happen. So the first thing happens, and you groan...well if there is no money for the first thing that happens, it stands to reason there will be no money for the second and third thing that happens. We are living on such a shoestring now that any thing that comes up which would ordinarily be just the normal "stuff" that happens in life, becomes an emergency. Then you find yourself standing on one foot, dreading the next thing that might happen, yet another demand that you don't have the money for. All three of things that happened would have happened regardless, but when we had the money set aside for them, they are just blips on the radar screen so to speak, but when funds are so tight, they became real "troubles" that came in threes. That's what I have figured out. Now I hope the troubles in threes will just stay away from my doorstep for the next little while. I've had my turn.