The Mystery

     The Mystery
It all started with the stolen garbage can lid.  I left my garbage at the end of the driveway, like I've been doing for 18 years.  The garbage guys are reliable, some a little neater than others, but basically I'd say I'm very pleased with the standards of my refuse removal.
This week, somebody took my garbage can lid.  No, it didn't blow away.  No, I didn't forget it.  Somebody actually slowed down, stopped in the road, got out of their vehicle and took my lid. Since I live in a pretty rural area, there are very few potential culprits, unless of course, it was an outside-the-area felon.  Somebody who'd been casing my garbage for a while and liked the look of my lid, and thought I was an easy target.  I'm considering scoping out my neighborhood to see if I can identify my lid on somebody else's can.  Clearly, I'm having some trouble getting past this, but I'm working on it.
A few days after the caper, I took my car in for its yearly inspection.  This was a slam dunk:  car is only 2 years old, with 16,000 miles on it.  Incorrect.  There was something wrong with my struts and my front end (oh so many possible cheap shots here, which I will let go).
  After being diagnosed by a second service station, I was told it needed $589 worth of work.  What????   I then took the car to the dealership because it was still under warranty (there is a God).  The dealer told me that my struts were fine, but I was missing 2 bolts.  At 60 cents each.  I asked if the bolts came loose and just fell off. 
 "nope". 
 "Are you sure?" 
 "yup".   
 "Was this a factory omission?" 
 "nope"
 Hmmmm
 "are you saying somebody deliberately took these bolts out?"
 "nope" (eye contact was lost at this point, so I knew he was lying).
 "Hey, pal, off the record, just you and me - did somebody sabotage this vehicle?"
 "well......"
I took the car back to the inspection place, and this time it passed with flying colors.
If I was a conspiracy theorist, I'd connect the garbage can lid with the missing bolts.  Is that crazy?
Oh yeah, when I got back from the inspection, the furnace went out again.  Still think I'm crazy?