New Opportunities

      Life is crazy sometimes. I’m sure we all go through it every now and then. I’m sure that, especially for those of us who’ve been around the sun a few times, even knowing that as a fact, we all get stuck in a state of awe, wondering how any of this is even possible. This has been one of those weeks. Where to start? I suppose the beginning is a good place. That takes us back to Monday. Wow, it seems like a month ago. Around 3pm we get a call from our daughter. She had just gotten to work, and on her way, she got a flat tire, but was able to make it to work. Another tire! I know it might not be her “fault,” but this is getting ridiculous. It’s like she has some type of aversion to things that work. Anyway, when my wife got home, we drove to our daughter’s work, to see if I could take care of it. I didn’t even know if there was a spare tire. Another odd little tidbit: I had recently signed up for AAA, and my membership card came the same day! I thought, “What a gift!” Just incase we needed it, I had the number to help in my pocket. Nothing to worry about. We got there, and there was a spare, so I was able to handle it myself. We told her to take it easy on the way home, and we’d fix it the next day. She got home incident free. The next morning, I took the car to our local tire shop, hoping this would be as easy a fix as the last one was. It was not. There was a sizable hole in the tire, he said he could not fix it, the tire was no good. Luckily, they had a replacement tire, so we were good to go.

     Taking care of business feels good. Then I went to get some ink for our printer. We finally needed to print something, and wouldn’t you know it, no ink! To go back a little bit, the reason we needed to print something was that my wife was just offered a job at a new company, and needed to print, and sign, the offer letter. She’s being offered almost twice what she’s making! The only problem is that it’s in San Marcos, which is about 45 miles away. We had been thinking about it quite a bit. She likes where she is, but that’s a lot of money to turn down. Plus, she has a lot of respect for the person who’s offered her the job. They used to work together, so they both know what they’re getting into. We were just talking about me possibly getting a “real” job, because we’re kind of burning through our extra cash. We discussed ways to tighten up the belt, but then this opportunity came along, and it seemed like an answer to our “prayers.” The only problem is the drive. But it seemed too good to pass up. So, I when I got home, I realized I got the wrong ink! I bought the 60 instead of the 61. Shoot! Plus, I had said “No receipt.” So I wasn’t sure if I’d even be able to exchange it for the one I needed. I was dismayed. Then my daughter got home, and said that the “Tire light indicator” came on while she was driving home. Are you kidding me?! I was hoping another tire was just a little low, and I’d be able to get to it the next morning. That was not the case. The next morning, we woke up to a flat tire!

     It was the same tire we just had replaced! Unbelievable! I was about to take her to work and try to exchange the ink. Now, no ride! Bummer. My daughter got an Uber to work, and I got ready to start my day. I was almost dressed when I got a phone call. It said it was my wife’s phone, but the person on the line said that he was a fireman, my wife had a seizure at work, and they were about to take her to the hospital. I never changed a tire so fast in my whole life! All of a sudden, the new tire could wait, the ink could wait, I had to go make sure she was okay. I was glad they let me in the ER to see her. She was okay. No real damage, except for having bit her tongue. The people at work were terrified. They thought she had passed. It was apparently pretty scary. I know, I was there the last time this happened, about 4 years ago. When you have a seizure, they take your license. They don’t want you driving if you aren’t maintaining consciousness. It makes sense. But now we’re thinking no new job. You can’t drive to San Marcos if you don’t have a license. We also weren’t sure if this was the Universe’s way of making sure she stayed at her current job. We do think it does things like that. When she told her new job about her incident, her new boss said he’d drive her until she got her license! Are you kidding me?! Who does that?! So the job is still on, my wife is alive and well, I was able to get the tire fixed today, and was also able to exchange my ink! On top of all of that, I get to have band practice tonight which hasn’t happened in almost 2 months! Life is good, even if it doesn’t always feel that way. Things happen for a reason we can’t know ahead of time.