Once again our house is crazy with a bunch of relatives descending on us for their vacation. Some actually arrived before we got home yesterday. Before I left for Southern California I wrote out a list of stuff for Army daughter to do. One of the things on the list was to take the turkey out of the freezer on Monday, put it into the ice chest and partially put on the lid. I figured by this morning it would be ready for me to put into the salt brine for a few hours and then stick it into the oven around noon. It was to be the main course at dinner tonight for the 20 plus people who were going to be sitting at our table.
I went out to the garage this morning to bring in the turkey. No turkey in the ice chest. Oops, Army daughter forgot. I think it was a conspiracy because everyone was asking if I would cook a brisket instead. Sure, I have to go to the vet this morning so cat can get his stitches out. I'll go to the meat market on the way home. I also had to make some photo copies because I didn't get that done the other day and nobody volunteered to do it when they were in town. I was not happy. In fact, I was starting to get into a bad mood having to even leave the property when I was expecting to hang out at home with the company.
I went to the vet. All was good with the cat. (I think I forgot to write that renters of the bug-out property brought their dog over and he stepped on one of our cats and broke the cat's pelvis.) I walked out of the vet and looked at my truck tire. It sort of looked low, but perhaps I was mistaken and it was just the way I had the wheels turned when I parked it. Then I went to the photo copy store. I was making two sided copies and the machine kept jamming. I was really getting ticked off but tried to be pleasant. When I was done I went out to the truck and noticed the tire was really low - almost too low to drive on it without wrecking it.
Change of plans, off to the tire shop. (Note to self: Buy one of those small compressors for the truck that will pump your tire.) I got there and the guy said that since they were so busy I'd have to wait a while. Did I want to go home and have them call me when it was done. No, I live 15 miles away. I'll wait here and if it's possible could they try to rush because I have company over and I really needed to get home. Also the dog and cat were in the back seat of the truck. I didn't have to wait too long, they got the truck up on the rack, took the tire off, and found the screw in the tire. They fixed the tire then tried to sell me a new set of tires. Not today.
When I left I realized that there was a reason that I had the flat tire. I needed to slow down and get out of the bad mood. While most people would have been in an even worse mood after the tire incident, it put me into a great mood. God was telling me to get over myself. It really wasn't a big deal that the turkey didn't get defrosted or that I needed to run some errands.
I headed off to the meat market, visited with the owner for a while, then went home. I got home and played with the grandkids for a while, then started preparing dinner. We had a great meal.
This would be a really stupid thing to write about today except it was really just a normal day with normal stresses. Sometimes we get so worked up about things that aren't such a big deal that it ruins our day, our health, and our happiness. Imagine if TSHTF and all the people at my house today were going to stay for a month or two or three rather than just a week? How would we deal with the personality differences that are easy enough to over look for just a week? We would need to have a solid hierarchy that was acceptable to all - with me in charge of the group of course...
Why would I be in charge? It's not just because it's my house or I'm the oldest of the clan. Rather it's because I'm logical, I handle stress well, and I know how to spread around the tasks that need to be done by relying on people's strengths. Every once in a while I just need a flat tire to remind me of that.
Great reminder! I wonder/hope that if things go haywire many of the everyday stresses will be gone, or at least become much lower on the priority list. Kind of like big things overshadowing smaller things. When big things are not around, then the smaller get blown out of proportion.
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