What's Right in the World

I could have had a totally shit day yesterday. On route to work, my car started gurgling and wincing and all kinds of other things it shouldn't be doing. This is a two year old car mind you, so I was not prepared that it was a transmission issue. My cell phone battery died to the point it can't hold a charge, so here I was stranded on a busy two lane highway, barely any shoulder, and steep declines down into a ditch. After about 30 minutes, a nice man stopped and let me use his phone, and helped get my car to a slightly safer place. He left, and about 45 minutes later, roadside assistance came.  At that same time, the man came by again, back the other way from his earlier appointment and stopped to make sure I was OK. the car got towed, it is under warranty, and DH got me a loaner. Nice people going out of their way is a god send in today's world. Bad odds that my car breaks down when I have no cell service, but I was back in commission by 10:00 a.m.

I am off today and tomorrow, switching up my days off to take advantage of a school break for DD. Unfortunately, I have a project due on Friday, that I just got the scope on Monday. A colleague in another agency, who has a shared responsibility, took on drafting the report yesterday, which meant I could just review, add, and correct, saving me hours. There are a few more hiccups, and she is going to do one more review, send my ways, and I'll only have to do a final review and edit tomorrow morning. Good colleagues are also a treasure. I still will have to log in and do work on what should be a day off, but compared to how I was feeling walking into the office yesterday, loads were lifted on this project by the time I left.

I stayed late at the office getting my parts of the project done, plus trying to leave things in good shape. I'm wearing two hats right now, and me being out is like two people being out of the office. I carefully crafted my "Out of Office" message with some FAQ's. Several times in the day, I had to switch back and forth between data systems, each one taking extra minutes, each one sucking minutes from my day, but I managed to clear my voice and e-mail some how. I was hungry and tired by the time I got home, but fortunately, I had frozen ham left from DD's confirmation, ready to throw in the oven potatoes, and corn to steam, and we still had dinner by 7:30, and not take out or frozen pizza. DD handled other chores, DH took the whiny pup for a walk, and we still ended up with a stress free night considering all the craziness of the day. Having a working freezer, working oven, and an adaptable family are all good things.  I admit though, yesterday took all my resiliency not to have a break down, and I felt tears well in my eyes as I waited by the roadside, as I was trying to make sense of the project, and as I was on a longer than needed phone call, and could hear two others ringing in at the same time. .

With my four day weekend, my plans are simple. We have housework and the norms of laundry. I'm hoping to get to a few more house projects, more purging, and some painting of a piece or two of furniture for our room or one of the extra rooms. DD and I want to have a poke about in a couple nearby towns; she calls them wander days. I'm going to get a good deal of baking done over the next few days. I need to try out Anne's Pumpkin Muffins. I may start a book, or at least pick up a favorite and reread. I ignored the debate last night. I know what is crap in the world, and I don't trust either to fix it. I have more faith in those around me to make the world a good place. My faith in fellow members of the community was bolstered yesterday, on a day I truly needed to be uplifted.