Hubris

We went to Toronto to see Michelle and Stephen on Friday night. It was a long shot, but I hope to leave relatively early and Andrew and I had a list of things that had to get done right after work before we departed. Pack clothes, pack snacks, change the tires on the van, feed the sheepdog and the cats and fill up the water, herd the sheep into the new lush pasture, check the fences.

As we pulled out of the driveway it was 6pm. We had done it all in just over an hour. And that's when I did it.

We're out of here on time. It's only 6 o'clock! I marvelled, with just a hint of smugness.

It was precisely that kind of hubris (this ship is unsinkable) that made Titanic go down beneath icy waves in 1912.

In our case, it wasn't quite so drastic. The van started shaking, and we kept onward thinking it must be alignment. We stopped at the first Canadian Tire to discover it was the tie rods needing repair. We drove home. We told the kids and saw disappointed faces. We considered our options, spent an hour adding a roof rack to the VW and repacking, and all five of us climbed in to make the 4 hour trek squashed into the back of Andrew's Golf.

Leaving at 9pm, we arrived at 1am - it was not the most fun trip I've ever been on.