The one with all the ups and downs

You just never know what you’ll wake up to!  I think this ought to become my new motto.  Despite the fact that most of my days are routine and/or boring and despite the fact that I often feel like I’m living my own version of the movie “Groundhog Day” certain events seem to insist on making their way into my everyday routine.  These “events” typically serve as gentle reminders that even though my days seem routine, they really aren’t and in fact, I AM working each and every single day toward a goal that excites me to my very core. 

My latest set of events started last week.  On Thursday evening one of our Bosch ovens sold to a gentleman in Houston.  We actually never met the guy because his parents live here in San Antonio and completed the exchange for him.  Apparently he is also remodeling, so one of our ovens found itself a nice new home where it will be used to cook good food.  Around here, it would simply be left to its own devices, thus burning each item I put in it.  I am assured the the new owner is a fantastic cook and so our little oven’s destiny looks bright.  Thursday was definitely an up day.  Who doesn’t like selling off their stuff when they don’t want it anymore? 

The following evening, which was Friday, took us (John, all 4 dogs and myself) up to Comfort, TX.  Comfort is a small town that I’ve driven through MANY times on my way to and from Colorado but I never knew it was a town!  :)  I just thought it was where we turned to go to Fredericksburg.  Well, since we drove up there to gather up a few new items to sell in the Scentchips store we decided to go ahead and have dinner.  A great recommendation lead us to 814 A Texas Bistro where we had a fabulous dinner together.  Along with dinner and free of charge came the creation of a rather entertaining memory.  Just minutes after we sat down to look at the menu, the electricity went out for the entire block.  We sat there, in a strange building without light, for what seemed to be about 2 or 3 minutes.  Eventually the electricity came back on as it always does in the good old US of A, however John, always the practical thinker, pointed out that the building may not be up to code since emergency lighting was certainly not in place.  :)  Further inquiries about the building informed us that the building was actually the original Comfort Post Office which explained why the door handle on the front door was literally two feet off the ground.  Back in the day, parents would have their children pick up the mail on their way home from school so the Post Office employees lowered the door handle to accommodate the height of their most common guests.   I’m not sure why they haven’t raised it since that time to accommodate today’s most common guests but that’s not my concern.  Regardless, when I woke up Friday morning I would never have envisioned a black out, a great dinner and a history lesson to be awaiting me that evening!  I’d say Friday was an up day for sure!

So then comes Saturday and lots of yard work, cleaning out the flowerbeds in the front and bagging of all our leaves.   I guess the green thumb syndrome got us because we drove Carrie (we named our truck ) down to the local nursery to pick up a pallet of grass.  A weak spot of grass in our backyard has struggled since the day we moved in and so we figured we might as well just put down a new layer of strong, sturdy St. Augustine grass.  I hate the stuff.  Its blades are about 3 inches thick and it’s pokey so you can’t walk barefoot as comfortably as you can on most Colorado lawns.  :(  Anyway, we put down the entire pallet just to find out that we needed about 3 times that amount.  Ok, so a math degree does nothing for your estimation skills … I get it.  Anyway, we were lucky to get 1 pallet of unreserved grass because it is in very high demand right now so John put in an order for 2 more pallets that we will pick up this coming Saturday.  Overall, Saturday was a good day.  Fresh air, time with John, one more bit of work checked off the remodeling list.  It was an up day!

Sunday.  Since I hadn’t been to the grocery store in about 4 weeks we desperately needed food.  Our pantry was nearly empty and really, the only items in it were items that you have to use as one of many ingredients in a recipe.  You know, vinegar, chocolate chips, flour, powdered sugar….all things that really aren’t suitable to be eaten alone.  So off to Costco we go during which time we received a phone call for our sofa bed.  Someone actually wanted our sofa bed!  I had been advertising in on Craigslist for a while but not too many solid hits.  Then this lady calls and offers $100, $50 less than our asking price.  John, also a wheeling-dealing-let’s-sell-all-our-stuff-as-fast-as-possible salesman offered to come down to $125 if she picked it up “today or tomorrow.”  Come to find out, she wanted help delivering it so John closed off the negotiations with an offer to deliver it that night if she paid our full asking price.  Done!  We had ourselves a deal so we ran home, loaded Carrie up with the couch and off we went to deliver our goods.  Never ever in my wildest dreams would I have thought that our sofa would find a wonderful new home that day.  Plus I sold two of our old high school calculators.  It seems people are starting to buy our stuff all of a sudden!  Another up day.

Then comes Monday.  Oh Monday.  As I turned the corner Monday morning to leave the bedroom and head towards the kitchen, I noticed water on the floor.  Good-freaking-apples I wanted to scream.  Why in the world is there water on the floor, seeping out of a wall that appears to be completely dry?  Because we had a leaking pipe.  2 houses.  2 leaking pipes.  Both in the slab.  What are the chances?  What are we doing wrong?  Seriously?  Another leaking pipe?  So, into the wall we cut to isolate the leak.  To make a long story short, we found the leaking pipe, called out a plumber who was named Joe (poor, poor guy) , and as of this point in time we have a hole in the wall in back of John’s sink, a whole in the wall facing the living room that is on the other side of John’s sink and another hold in the wall in the linen closet.  Hermes likes to look through the holes (from the living room into the bathroom) to avoid actually walking around the corner to see what’s happening on the other side of the wall but I’m not overly thrilled with our new arrangement.  :)  All pipes will be fixed tomorrow and the wall repairs will soon follow.  Of course, who thinks “We’re gonna have a leaking pipe today!” when they wake up Monday morning.  Another shock, not exactly a down day but certainly not an up one either.

So to summarize, Thursday was an up day, Friday up,  Saturday up, Sunday up, Monday more down than up and frankly, yesterday was a really long work day that I don’t really recall.  I really don’t know what I’m going to wake up to these days.  I guess really, no one does.  However, I liked having a recent series of unexpected events, each of which (except the pipe) contributed to our departure.  So many years have passed since I’ve really been excited about something.  Life evolved into an “OK, what am I supposed to do now.” existence.  Now, after all this time, I want my RV days to get here so badly.  What I’m finding (and frankly it does surprise me) is that wanting something so much is truly exciting in an almost overwhelming way but it also encourages a feeling of depression and almost helplessness because you can only make so much progress at any given moment.  I now remember what it’s like to be a young child on a road trip asking “Are we there yet?”  You’re so excited for the destination that sometimes the trip feels longer than it really is.  I guess that’s just the Yin and Yang of life.  Maybe it’s a test to enjoy my journey toward a new life.

One other interesting tid-bit is a website I was referred to … www.rvThereYet.net.  I gain hope for our country and our people as I realize that I’m not as weird as I sometimes think I am.  More and more people are turning away from money, fancy houses, new cars, sparkling jewels, etc. for a life full of meaning and enjoyment.  I’m not the only one!  I’m not weird!!!  That gives me such hope because many times it does feel like everyone around us is worried only about money and status.  As I learn to really “be” with people and as I learn to take the time to slow down and actively participate in each life event I encounter I become so excited to shed these chains … to shed all this responsibility … to shed all these things that enslave me and force me to get up each day and go to work whether I want to or not.  I’m always going to want to work, that I know.  But I want to work on my terms.  Really, I’m beginning to see that’s NOT too much to ask for despite what my managers/bosses always insinuated.  I’m more than happy to contribute 110% of what I consume in this world.  I’m thrilled to give back more than I take.  I just want simplicity and happiness.  I know that’s NOT too much to ask for!

This entry was posted on Wed, Mar 04 2009 at 10:27 and is filed under Vanessa's Ramblings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.