Memorial Day was my birthday. I cannot remember a worse birthday in my life. The year I spent in bed with mono while my mom and brother went to the California Balloon Festival runs a close second, methinks.
Not complaining (OK, maybe I am). Not griping (ditto). It just stunk. In retrospect, what really stunk was my attitude, not the situation.
Allow me to explain.
On Sunday night we had one of the craziest storms I have ever witnessed in my time here. While the wind and rain went CrAzY outside one of the businessmen in our church gave a presentation about the coming economic collapse of the United States economy (and, believe it our not...it's coming. Maybe more on that later.) Scary enough in and of itself. It was a bit comical how the lightning and thunder complimented the points he was making. I almost expected to hear evil organ music in the background finished off with maniacal laughter.
Of course that evening we had a get together after the evening service at the church. Everyone was somewhat somber due to that evening's subject matter, but still were enjoying the time of fellowship. Cleaned everything up and got home around 11:30 pm. Went down to the basement (where my kid's bedrooms are) and needed rubber boots to get around.
There is not supposed to be water in the basement. Water and carpet don't mix.
Two rooms and the hallway were soaked. Granted, there wasn't 11 inches of water, but the carpets were SOAKED. Worked until 2 am trying to save what I could. there wasn't so much lost as there was frustration and inconvenience.
Basically I spent most of my birthday dealing with the mini-disaster. Maybe mini-disaster is an exaggeration (however, possibly storm related was the untimely demise of my desktop computer...so mini-disaster may be correct.)
Reality check time. It's just stuff, and I tend to place WAY too much importance on stuff. Stuff that can be damaged by water, or fried by power surges, or "borrowed" by the less scrupulous among us. Stuff that is only in our grasp for a fleeting moment. I started freaking out about the stuff, then eventually realized how my priorities are upside down.
Honestly? I still like stuff, but I realized something valuable that day. Maybe it wasn't such a bad day.
Another year older, hopefully a little wiser.
Not complaining (OK, maybe I am). Not griping (ditto). It just stunk. In retrospect, what really stunk was my attitude, not the situation.
Allow me to explain.
On Sunday night we had one of the craziest storms I have ever witnessed in my time here. While the wind and rain went CrAzY outside one of the businessmen in our church gave a presentation about the coming economic collapse of the United States economy (and, believe it our not...it's coming. Maybe more on that later.) Scary enough in and of itself. It was a bit comical how the lightning and thunder complimented the points he was making. I almost expected to hear evil organ music in the background finished off with maniacal laughter.
Of course that evening we had a get together after the evening service at the church. Everyone was somewhat somber due to that evening's subject matter, but still were enjoying the time of fellowship. Cleaned everything up and got home around 11:30 pm. Went down to the basement (where my kid's bedrooms are) and needed rubber boots to get around.
There is not supposed to be water in the basement. Water and carpet don't mix.
Two rooms and the hallway were soaked. Granted, there wasn't 11 inches of water, but the carpets were SOAKED. Worked until 2 am trying to save what I could. there wasn't so much lost as there was frustration and inconvenience.
Basically I spent most of my birthday dealing with the mini-disaster. Maybe mini-disaster is an exaggeration (however, possibly storm related was the untimely demise of my desktop computer...so mini-disaster may be correct.)
Reality check time. It's just stuff, and I tend to place WAY too much importance on stuff. Stuff that can be damaged by water, or fried by power surges, or "borrowed" by the less scrupulous among us. Stuff that is only in our grasp for a fleeting moment. I started freaking out about the stuff, then eventually realized how my priorities are upside down.
Honestly? I still like stuff, but I realized something valuable that day. Maybe it wasn't such a bad day.
Another year older, hopefully a little wiser.
2 comments:
.....ummm, Happy Birthday? Sorry it was such a yucky day! I hope this year will be nicer to you!
Are you as old as I am now?
No. You will always be a little older ;)
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