In 2018, Tina and I went on a dream vacation to Hawaii with our youngest daughter and her family.

There’s a saying that it’s bad luck to take a piece of the island away with you when you leave. They say it angers the gods.

Me being a rock hound and seeing all those bits and pieces of lava lying around, I couldn’t help myself. I picked up a small one, albeit just from the hotel parking lot and put it in my pocket.

I figured no one would mind since it was an itie-bitie piece of rock from a commercial endeavors landscaping. I was wrong.

Kilauea awoke.

When we visited the National Volcano Park we were told how lucky we were to see molten lava leaping from the caldera below the rim.

From our bungalow a couple miles east of the park the sky glowed orange that night.

Hmmmm. How fortunate.

After we flew to another one of the islands we heard a storm like none seen before had hit the one we had just left and the volcano was beginning to erupt.

I thought about that rock I’d put in my pocket. Hmmmm. Could it be…

No. That was just a ridiculous old tale.

We stayed a couple more days and with each passing day I heard more and more talk about the eruption.

After we returned home it was all over the news about Kilauea blowing molten lava into the air. Roads we had traveled on were gone. Houses were consumed and the famous archway we’d visited that stood on the shoreline had collapsed into the ocean.

I thought about that bit of volcanic rock that was now sitting out in my rock garden with all the other ones I had picked up from other states we had gone to.

Were the island gods really that angry?

We have just returned from a trip to Charleston, South Carolina. One of the things we did there was go on a nighttime ghost tour.

Our guide was interesting and one of the stories she told us was occasionally a ghost would latch onto someone they found intriguing and follow them around Charleston.

She said, “Don’t be surprised if you begin to experience strange things happening around you after you leave here tonight.”

That night after got back to the hotel something did happen. Tina said while she was in the bathroom she observed a towel I had hung over the shower curtain rod that morning slowly slide off and drop to the floor.

The next day the GPS on our dash malfunctioned twice indicating we should go somewhere else.

Before leaving South Carolina I picked up a stone to bring back home. As I usually do when I go on a trip.

As we were driving back we heard a swarm of earthquakes had hit the area. Then this morning I heard even more quakes had been reported.

Thinking back, I recall Covid hitting New York immediately after we visited that city in January of 2020.

Plus, we had a huge ice storm when Tina left and went to Albuquerque several years ago.

Another time she was gone a hurricane hit the coast and its remnants came north to Kentucky and blew shingles off our house. It also damaged siding and caved in two of our garage doors.

As I write this we are sitting outside beneath the pergola. A pipe from one of our wind chimes just dropped to the patio beside my wife.

What’s the common denominator here?

It has to be us!

Just wondering. Would any of you like for us to come for a visit to your town? Perhaps we could talk Jim Cantore into coming along with us.

_______________
Rick Algood
July 1, 2022