Funk You
Damn, if it doesn’t seem like life can conspire against you sometimes. The timing of just about everything in my life is getting thrown off lately and it’s really bringing me down.
I’d relate it all in exquisite detail, but, in hindsight, it’s all rather mundane. Deaths by a 1000 cuts are not that interesting and, deep down, I think I just have to “man up” and ride this wave to whatever shore it brings me. However, just to give you an idea of what is going on, my car is in the shop with a $380 emergency brake cable repair. It’s fixed, but the initial report from the shop yesterday afternoon was that they needed to keep it overnight. Ok, fine. But, now my wife had to drive down and pick me up from work, unexpectedly, after picking my son up from school. By itself, that was no big deal, except that she had a wake to go to b/c a cousin’s wife’s mother passed away unexpectedly and my son’s in-home therapist was coming for a 2 hour session in the late afternoon. Couple that with the sudden urgency to fix a 9-month old customer issue, requiring me to take work home and somehow to that and babysit (toddlersit?) while my wife went to the wake and… blahblahblah.
While all of this was going on last night, the sprayer on the kitchen sink decided to leak under the sink, which we didn’t notice until water started spilling out of the cabinet. I would’ve fixed it last night, but I didn’t have a car.
I came into work this morning and saw that I had a voice mail message from the dealership. My car was ready at 5pm last night. Evidentally, they didn’t need to keep it overnight after all.
Like I said before… timing. Things are just falling apart all around me. Our “new” television is getting all wonky. It’s only about 2 years old. When it first turns on, there are missing scan lines at the top of the screen. As it warms up, it fixed itself, but it’s annoying. The XBox doesn’t work anymore, much to my son’s chagrin. When I turn it on, I get the “red ring of death”. It’s a known motherboard overheating problem that will require it be shipped somewhere to be fixed or replaced. Great. That’s what I get for buying anything built/designed by Microsoft. (Forza Motorsports is a great game, though.) I swear that company couldn’t pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were printed on the heel.
Oh, and my 3 year old roof is leaking. Great workmanship there, too. Absolutely stellar.
Another oh! Evidentally a $2000 payment to my advocacy lawyer didn’t make it there, though it was cashed. So, $2000 of my money went God-knows-where.
So, all these things are dragging me down. But, as I was reminded both before and in Starbucks this morning, they’re just things. Two little events put things into perspective.
While in Starbucks, I overheard an older woman telling the baristas there that she was recovering from chemotherapy. She was wearing a hat which covered most of her head, which, after overhearing the chemo remark, told me that she probably had no hair. The key point is this, she was in a good mood. She was dealing with some very serious life events with optimism and cheer.
The second event occured as my wife was driving into the Starbucks plaza parking lot. A store called “Irish Cottage” is also in the plaza and my wife remarked that they must have moved there from the nearby mall. My son, who was in the back seat, on a long detour on his way to school, asked about the store. My wife answered that the store sells Irish things. When my son asked for examples, she mentioned things like crystal, shamrocks, sweaters and the like. My son then added, “And things a leprechaun would wear?”
It took all I had not to laugh. It was the absolutely cutest thing. I’m still smiling over it.
And a lesson gets relearned yet again. People are more important than things. Things are nice, but they break. They may serve as pleasant distractions from the mundanity of our lives, but they’re not as important as the lives themselves. So, yeah, shit happens, is happening. The stuff I’m going through right now is minor, all things considered. Besides, I still have my health.
*cough*