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We all have had our fair share of bad days.

Normally, people can tell early in the morning if their day is heading in the wrong direction. Small, tell-tale signs such as there are no clean bath towels to be found; the toilet paper holder is empty (and there’s no emergency roll within an arm’s reach); or you’re out of coffee should give a person a heads-up that their day is on the verge of becoming even worse.

Other signs that you should perhaps have remained in bed when the alarm clock sounded include leaving late for work and every vehicle you follow is traveling 20 mph below the posted speed limit (that happens to me even when I leave the house on time); there’s no bread to fix a sandwich for breakfast (or you’re out of bacon, ham, sausage, etc.); you get to work and realize your socks don’t match; or – God forbid – you forgot to put on deodorant.

You may feel like you have a hangover when you crawl out of bed…then you realize you didn’t have a drop of alcohol to drink the night before.

Or you might reach in the closet to pick out something to wear to work, and then react in horror upon realizing you forgot to do the laundry the day before.

And perhaps the biggest sign that it’s not going to be a good day is you rush out the door at the same time that Mother Nature unleashes a wicked storm. It’s raining cats and dogs, and you’re umbrella is in the house, along with your car keys.

However, there’s always comfort to be found in other people’s problems. We humans are a weird lot…we love reading about other people’s miseries.

So, the next time you think the world is crumbling around you, consider these tales of the weird:

In a hospital’s Intensive Care Unit, patients always died in the same bed, on Sunday morning, at about 11 a.m., regardless of their medical condition. This puzzled the doctors and some even thought it had something to do with the supernatural.

No one could solve the mystery as to why the deaths occurred around 11 a.m. on Sunday, so a worldwide team of experts was assembled to investigate the cause of the incidents.

The next Sunday morning, a few minutes before 11 a.m., all of the doctors and nurses nervously waited outside the ward to see for themselves what the terrible phenomenon was all about. Some were holding wooden crosses, prayer books, and other holy objects to ward off the evil spirits. Just when the clock struck 11, Pookie Johnson, the part-time Sunday janitor, entered the ward and unplugged the life support system so he could use the vacuum cleaner.

Are you still having a bad day? If so, read on.

The average cost of rehabilitating a seal after the Exxon Valdez Oil spill in Alaska was $80,000. At a special ceremony in honor of this feat, two of the most expensively saved animals were being released back into the wild amid cheers and applause from onlookers. A minute later, in full view, a killer whale ate them both.

Still think you are having a bad day? Read the following:

A woman came home to find her husband in the kitchen shaking frantically, almost in a dancing frenzy, with some kind of wire running from his waist towards the electric kettle. Intending to jolt him away from the deadly current, she whacked him with a handy plank of wood, breaking his arm in two places. Up to that precise moment he had been happily listening to his Walkman.

Are you okay now? No; then check this out:

Two animal rights defenders were protesting the cruelty of sending pigs to a slaughterhouse in Bonn, Germany. Suddenly, all 2,000 pigs broke loose and escaped through a broken fence, stampeding madly. The two helpless protesters were trampled to death.

What? Still having a bad day? I saved the best for last:

Iraqi terrorist Khay Rahnajet didn’t pay enough postage on a letter bomb he sent. It came back with ‘Return to Sender’ stamped on it. Forgetting it was the bomb, he opened it and was blown to bits. God is good!

There now, I hope you’re feeling better. Just remember these stories the next time you’re having a bad day.

Cal Bryant is the Editor of Roanoke-Chowan Publications. Contact him at cal.bryant@r-cnews.com or 252-332-7207.