Years ago, Shirlee replaced “goodbye” with “have a blessed day”. Since then, her life has run more smoothly. Her husband and kids aren’t nearly as nasty as they used to be. True, her boys still lose a wool sock or winter coat mid-season. But the hard stuff, like cursing her or taking the Lord’s name in vain when they don’t happen to like what she’s dishing out for dinner, well…that behavior is pretty much gone. And for all the stress of standing inside the booth at the Jersey Turnpike collecting money, Shirlee generally finds at least one moment in the hour that merits a “Hallelujah”. Save for the pinkie toe she broke while kicking the jammed candy machine, life is pretty good. But that image of what should have been her Twix bar caught in the coils of the vending machine still makes her blood boil.