11:11

If there's one sequence of numbers that really plagues my life it's 11:11 . 
If I ever get some urge to look at a clock, day or night, they will usually be the numbers staring right back at me.
It really bugs me that these numbers seem to be trying to tell me something, but I just don't get it.
And this has been happening for at least the last 20 (maybe, even 23 [there's another number plaguing my life];-) years of my life.
So, here's just one example, from the other day.

I work a lot of different shifts for my employer, 9.30am-5.30pm, 1.30pm-9.30pm, 9.00am-5.30pm (on weekends), and 11.30am-7.30pm ... the last shift being the shift I was working, when this last 11:11 spook took place.

When I work the 11.30am-7.30pm shift I usually try to leave home around 11 o'clock, because on average it takes me about 15 to 20 mins to get there allowing for the inevitable couple of red lights along the way.

This particular day I was running a bit late (not unusual, but I always seem to clock in just in time, even if only by literal seconds) and when I hopped into my car the digital clock on the dash was showing 11:11 as I was leaving home ... that's not the strange part, because that does happen quite a lot ... now here comes the spooky bit.
There are only two routes I usually travel to work, one is on the main road (which has too many traffic lights, for my liking), and the other is the back-roads (past the old Gum Tree site, [see post below "Comes a Time"] ), which I usually travel to avoid the traffic lights and keep on the move.

Now, I knew the local council were doing road works in the back-roads, so if I didn't want to get held up by them, I would have to chance the lights, and hope it wouldn't make me late (my employer is a real time Nazi when it comes to swiping in late, and they keep a computer record of your swipes, so they can fire your @$$ later on down the track, if they start forming pretty patterns on your record ... so there is a real incentive to swipe in on time, if I want to be able to keep paying off the vig on my mortgage to those bankster$, who lent me the money, which keeps me working in the day prison of my choice;-)

Anyway, I chose to risk the lights, over the roadworks and hoped for a fair run.
There are 10 sets *(see footnote) of lights to get through, going this way from my house, not to mention roundabouts.
This day was memorable for more than one reason, because this day I didn't get one single red light.
It was a nonstop ride through 10 sets* (see footnote) 

of green lights!?!

It was amazing to get through that maze without stopping;-)

But here is the cherry on the cake, it only took me 11 minutes to get to work that day.
It was one of the most relaxing drives I have ever had getting to work, and I had a rare 8 minutes to spare, before swiping in.
I went to put my steering lock on, and my eye caught the trip meter, which I only ever reset when filling up with petrol, so I can see what sort of distance I get out of my tank.
I was so amazed at what I saw that I had to take a photo of it, just so I could back up this amazing story.

My trip-meter after arriving at work
after an all green light trip

  

I've only just realized this now, looking at the above photo.
If you add up all the white numbers on black dials you get (from top to bottom) 1+1+1+1+1+3+3+7+5 = 23, the other number that haunts my life.
That's just doubled the spook factor for me.
I thought it was amazing enough with just the 11:11 on the trip meter, but now that I've noticed this, I'm glad I snapped that shot, because that 23 would have passed me by, unnoticed.
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Type of vehicle driven by red light runner.

Not really related to this story, but related to this car.
Last week I was nearly wiped out by a #ickhead in a black Toyota Hi-Lux, who ran a red light, which had been green for me, for at least a good four seconds.
The only thing that saved me was that the driver in front of me, in a red Falcon, suddenly stopped as we were both about to enter the intersection (didn't I call him a few choice words as I nearly ran up his back?).
I think the Falcon driver probably might have just made it through if he didn't stop, but I would have been literally mince meat, as the black Hi-Lux grill would have ran right through my driver's side door, at about 70 km/h.

As we got around the corner, I drove up next to the Falcon driver, and I mouthed a big thank you to him, but he looked quite pale, and a bit shaken, and probably took my thank you as curse words, directed his way, by some idiot, that nearly ran up his back.
I just hope he didn't, but it's a bit hard trying to think straight, when you realize that you missed the death bus by a few split seconds.

It all sounds like an Egyptian fable when you think about it.
A Red Ford Falcon (Horus) saving a little silver Hyundai Lantra (whatever that word means) from a black Toyota Hi Lux (balck light-[Set]).

I often joke to people when they ask me why I have a Grateful Dead sticker on my windshield, that it's in case I get killed in a road accident, and it will be my way of telling loved ones, this may look real bad, but I'm OK on the other side, trust me (I just hope it's never used for this purpose;-).

My Grateful Dead sticker on
the windshield of my car

But that day it was good to be part of the 'Grateful Living';-)
Although as close as it looked to being my last day on earth, I still believe when your numbers up, it's up.
So, a miss is as good as a mile (or kilometre), in my books.
But it still makes you appreciate the possibilities of your life, when something like this happens.

BTW, as I was taking the shot of this sticker, I just realized that the numbers on my number plate, which is just a standard issue plate adds up to 23?!

Part of my numberplate

Life ... it's one strange trip!!!
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*UPDATE: (April 7th, 2011) There were actually 11 sets of lights on this trip, now that I actually drove through, and physically counted them (I missed a set of pedestrian lights at a Catholic school, which I just about always get through).
Which makes things just that little bit more spooky.

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UPDATE: (April 8th, 2011) It's my dad's 81st birthday today, and coming home from work I decided to stop at an ATM and get some money out to put in the birthday card, that I was going to give him the next day when I saw him.
When I went to hop out of the car I noticed this (below):

The trip meter was reading 81, and the kilometres traveled meter below was reading 114377.

81 is how old he is today.
Plus, if you look closely, you'll see the last dial on the trip meter

(the white dial) is stuck between the 2&3.
Read vertically, the white dial could be viewed as a 23 

(my birth-date) and if you add up the bottom dial 1+1+4+3+7+7 =23.

I'm beginning to think that I'm trapped in a Jim Carrey movie;-)

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My car keys and key ring

Update: 29th April 2011: 

 I have just finished reading Mary Soliel's book 

I Can See Clearly Now and this passage in the book's first chapter really resonates with this post here for me.

It says,"On a deep level, we feel the need to break away from the patterns that have held us back.

We are becoming increasingly connected to our higher selves and are seeking spiritually conscious and authentic ways of being.

Ultimately, we are being driven to live from the inside out, rather than the outside in."

The key-chain, pictured above, I bought about 7 weeks ago, and attached it to my existing keyring, which has my "Surfing the Tao" surfboard and Cronulla NRL membership badge already on it.

I initially bought it because I liked the silver die and pale blue horseshoe.

It reminds me that "life's a gamble" and you have to take some risks, with no guarantees of a payoff, if you want to be a winner.

The flip-side of course, is that you could end up a loser ... but that's life ... there's no gain, or loss, without risk ... just a boring, safe life.

Which is fine if you like boring safe lives ... but that's not for me.

My plan is to back myself and be rewarded for backing a winner.

The other four symbols on the chain, the clover leaf, eight-ball, diamond and number 7, appealed to me on some subconscious level, but I didn't really know why, apart from the obvious symbolic luck tokens that they represent.

But as you might have noticed from the picture of my number plate (above), 8&7 are the only two numbers on the plate, and there is a diamond shape in the middle of the plate.

Also, I learned from reading in 

I Can See Clearly Now that my life number is 7 (you add up all the numbers in your birth-date to arrive at a single digit number).

 And Mary says "7 calls for endings leading to new beginnings".

Mary also says, "More and more people are catching 11:11 repeatedly on their clocks, and this phenomenon is known to reflect humanity's collective permission to change the course of the earth toward peace, instead of prophesied destruction.

Many believe it is a wakeup call, a reminder that says we're on the track to earth's new reality.

Some simply regard it as good luck and make wishes when they notice it." 

The same night that I realized all this, I was listening to this pod-cast

 Living a Synchronistic Lifestyle

with author Mary Soliel, being interviewed on a blogtalk radio show.

I still wondered about the shamrock, though, and oddly enough at the 50 min mark of this pod-cast, Mary says,"What are you thinking when you see a truck with a bunch of shamrocks on it? 

It's probably a good sign"

The Sam Lesante Show with Mary Soliel