please explain!

[hitinvo]

Every once in a while there comes a time in a fellow's life when it seems like his luck had gotten stuck in quicksand and is sinking fast. Just when he thinks it's about to go under, though, he finds a rope and pulls it out again. Now, that's just how things were last spring when my knob-headed old mule and I were roaming the range up near Cheyenne (the excerpt from the Old Coot and the Augering Match)
Question: Could anyone explain this paragraph for me?
What does the 1st sentence mean? Thanks.

[Gillnetter]

Every once in a while there comes a time in a fellow's life when it seems like his luck had gotten stuck in quicksand and is sinking fast. Just when he thinks it's about to go under, though, he finds a rope and pulls it out again. Now, that's just how things were last spring when my knob-headed old mule and I were roaming the range up near Cheyenne (the excerpt from the Old Coot and the Augering Match)
Question: Could anyone explain this paragraph for me?
What does the 1st sentence mean? Thanks.

Quicksand is composed of water and loose sand. If you stand on it, you will have a difficult time getting out of the quicksand. People have been known to stand on quicksand and sink in so far they die. If a person stuck in quicksand cannot get out on their own, they could use a rope to pull themselves out of the quicksand. Last spring (the season after winter) this person and his mule (somewhat like a horse) were wandering on the plains near Cheyenne, Wyoming in the western US.

What the writer is saying in the first sentence is that sometimes a person's luck is bad and getting worse.

[hitinvo]

Does this paragraph use analogy? and what does the phase every once in a while mean?

[Gillnetter]

Does this paragraph use analogy? and what does the phase every once in a while mean?

"Every once in a while there comes a time in a fellow's life when it seems like his luck had gotten stuck in quicksand and is sinking fast. Just when he thinks it's about to go under, though, he finds a rope and pulls it out again."

Luck is being seen as something that can get stuck in quicksand and the rope is being seen as something that can pull luck out of the quicksand.

Every once in a while - An event occurs that is not scheduled or does not occur often. For example, every once in a while I go to the beach. Occasionally I go to the beach.