Tag: miracle

The Mileage Miracle – A True Story

~ Jim Flanigan ~ 1 Comment

Well, mostly true. I changed my wife’s name from Shannon to Gladys to protect her anonymity. And I changed some of the details of the story in a desperate attempt to enhance the humorous effect. But the pics were not altered in any way. Oh, wait, that’s also not true. I cropped them. Anyway, here we go with a semi-true story featuring altered pics that happened last weekend.

I didn’t wake up that day to settle any arguments over the existence of a Deity or the propensity of that Deity to personally intervene in our everyday banal existences. I got up to take my wife to the local urgent care facility. She was experiencing some serious back and leg pain post-COVID. I could have fixed her up with the same opiods that the so-called “doctor” prescribed, but somehow that medical degree carried more weight with my wife than my doctorate in street savvy.

She was still in pain when I left her. “Babe, I know you’re hurting, but I gotta run,” I explained. “I’ve got a luncheon to get to. Give me a sign that you’ll be alright.”

She tried to give me a V for victory sign, but was too weak to raise her forefinger to complete the V sign. But I knew what she meant. I doffed my cap, blew her a kiss (I didn’t want to get too close to catch her back pain disease), and headed to the garage. But before I left, I gave her a parting message. “Oh, and I’m taking your car. Mine’s way low on gas.” She responded by frantically waving her hand with partial V sign at me.

“Shit,” I exclaimed as I started my wife’s car. Her car was low on gas, too. She showed a quarter tank of gas and a 70 mile range. I was staring at a 90 mile round trip. My mind flashed to Ellwood Blues.

Except, something was out of whack.

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A Christmas Eve Pot Pourri with Miracles, etc.

~ Jim Flanigan ~ 1 Comment

A lot has been happening to me personally over these Twelve Days of Blogging, so I thought I’d recap the highlights for you including more Christmas miracles and a Hanukkah miracle.

Let’s start with another Christmas miracle. The television remote control was gone. I was the likely culprit having last used it. Did I dodder off in my typical addled state and lay the missing remote in an unfindable place? The full house search revealed nothing. It was missing for two whole days. We spent hours upon hours teaching ourselves how to use the funny buttons on the bottom of the TV to change channels, volume, source, etc. The remote was gone. Grieving had begun. I began sitting shiva in front of the television which I usually do anyway.

And then, my youngest daughter found it under the couch. Just like that. She looked, and there it was. Yes, we had looked under the couches before. I had found a dog ball under one of the couches. Our youngest dog was so happy to see it again that he promptly ate half of it before we could take it away from him. Merry Christmas.

There will be some who say that our ball-eating dog’s tail whisked it off the coffee table and onto the floor under the couch. And that we did a lousy job in looking for it. But I have another theory.

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A True Christmas Miracle!

~ Jim Flanigan ~ 1 Comment

Here we are on the third of Twelve Days of Blogging, and I am thrilled to report that I am not yet out of ideas for twelve straight days of blogging.

Sure, not all of my planned blog ideas are monumental. One of the ideas I have is for a picture of “Merry Christmas” spelled out using toenail clippings. However, mine are not enough. All I can make is “Merry Chris,” and the one Chris I know is somewhat surly. I could settle for “Merry Xmas,” but I don’t want to disappoint you, the reader, by not providing the full, traditional Christmas salutation. I suppose I could use some older ones that I have stored in jars in the basement, but I really wanted them to be fresh clippings from this Christmas season. I guess you can just call me a traditionalist. Now I’m playing a waiting game for someone else in the house to trim their toenails to be able to make that post happen. I know you’ll be waiting on pins and needles.

Wow, this post about a true Christmas miracle really went off the rails quickly. Well, let’s get back on track. After already detailing a recent Hannukkah miracle, I am thrilled to report being witness to a true Christmas miracle involving my wife’s pumpkins (not a euphemism).

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A Modern Hanukkah Miracle?

~ Jim Flanigan ~ 2 Comments

The 8 Days of Hanukkah tradition comes from a time just after Jewish rebels liberated the Temple in Jerusalem during the Maccabean Revolt. To rededicate the Temple, a menorah was to be lit continuously. Obviously, energy conservation was not a hot topic back then. No wonder we have climate change issues these days. Anyway, the bad news was that they only had enough oil to last one day. The good news was that a miracle occured, and their one day’s worth of oil lasted eight days until they got new oil.

I know it’s still a little premature for Hanukkah, but did I just personally experience a modern 8 Days of Haukkah? Yeah, I know it may not be as exciting of a story as the original, but it is to me. I was a part of this miracle. I literally partook of the miracle. While it doesn’t concern jugs of oil, it does involve this particular jug …

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A Netflix Christmas Miracle

~ Jim Flanigan

There has not been a miracle like I experienced this weekend since the weeping Madonna.

No, not that Madonna. You know, the Madonna, the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus. Some of her statues have supposedly wept and really made a mess like this one.

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