a real tisha b'av

You've heard the stories and the superstitions that Tisha B'Av is a bad day for the Jews, both spiritually and physically. We don't do things during this time of year, because the assumption is that something will go wrong. Mr. Murphy (of Murphy's Law fame) owns these days. Well I have to say that we met Mr. Murphy yesterday as we attempted to leave Jerusalem in the early afternoon, as the sun beat down upon us with a hellish heat.
I left kinos just before the 3 hour rule ended. For those of you who don't know, the 3 hour rule is the amount of time possible to spend in shul if it is not yom kippur (or similar). I went to get my wife and kids who were playing with my mom in the rova. We packed everything up and then I got my dad from shul to say goodbye to us all. It looked like even he had had enough of shul for the day. But there was a/c in the shul which gave a pretty good argument to continue with the kinos.
We walked to the car, parked on the second (farther) Har Zion parking lot because we couldn't get a spot in the old city on Friday and the first parking lot was closed. The sun is mercilessly beating down on us and we get to the car and realize that we don't have the keys. That this should be the worst thing that happened. I walk back and get the keys, while everyone else waits in the shade. Finally, we pack up the car and say our goodbyes. By this time it is after noon, so it isn't considered that taboo to leave. We start driving and something doesn't feel right. I pull over and lo and behold, a falt tire. There was a screw deeply embedded.
Thank God, a local Jerusalemite walked by and offered to help. While I didn't need the help, changing a tire is really a one man job, I accepted after telling him that I understood if he didn't fast day and all. Then the gas station didn't accept the credit card so we used all our cash to put in half a tank. After that the trip went fairly smoothly. (Other then being completely drained because of being in the sun for so long). We went to a mall in Haifa and let the kids play in their play area for two hours, and then they got kids meals at burger ranch (The girls got purses as their prizes and the boys got batmobiles) and they were pretty much happy until we got home.

I'm back at work today and not worse for the wear, so I can't really complain. I told my kids that this was gam zu l'tova to give them an education, though I'm not sure if the Tisha B'Av satan was just out to get me in a Iyov (Job) like fashion.

My daughter asked me to sing another tisha B'Av song after I stopped singing the first one. My wife thought it was inapproriate to sing, "the roof is on fire" song (even though I changed the words to "let the Bais HaMikdash burn"), so I didn't sing it out loud.

In the end the maple pecan rolls were excellent.