I read somewhere that setbacks are really opportunities to greater things. If that's true, then the past couple of years have been setting me up for some kind of unimaginable awesomeness.
Yes, I know. I have to take advantage of each opportunity to achieve the greatness hidden within. Right now, though, I'm a bit overwhelmed with opportunities - or setbacks, depending on your point of view.
When my lawnmower died a couple of years ago, I had the chance to learn how to fix the mower. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anybody who had the time to teach me how to fix the mower. I took it to a repair shop and spent over $100 trying to get it fixed. I bought it practically brand new for $75 (the guy had a tiny yard and realized he had too much mower for such a small patch of grass).
After hitting the $100 mark on repairs, and admission of defeat by the repairman, I gave up getting it fixed. And if he couldn't figure out how to fix it, I was pretty sure he couldn't teach me how to fix it. Besides, at this point I'd been laid off and didn't want to keep throwing money at a problem when my own money situation was taking a nosedive.
Without going into too many details, the other setbacks that have presented themselves to me since that time are:
- The electricity in the living room went out. We use extension cords when necessary. Doesn't help with the ceiling fan, though.
- Washing machine quit working. I did manage to get that fixed, thanks to a guy who, having just been laid off himself, sympathized with my plight.
- Septic system had to be pumped - twice.
- Hot water heater died. I thought they were supposed to last more than four years.
- Central heat/air unit had to be repaired.
- Too many illnesses. My wife and daughter are pretty much home-bound. I'm fighting a cold or something that has lasted several weeks. Affordable health care? I've heard of such a beastie. Must be a point of view thing.
- Dryer doesn't dry. Can't afford to fix it at this point, but I actually found that if I need to run an errand, I can take wet laundry to the laundromat and throw them in the dryers there. It gives me an incentive to keep errands to half an hour.
- No garbage pickup. I have to haul my own garbage if I want it done. The service out here is spotty at best. I quit paying to have my garbage not picked up. I wish I had a truck, though.
- The advent of digital TV. The downside of living an hour away from cities that have television stations is that when they went digital, the signal strength dropped dramatically the farther away you were. At least with analog, a rabbit ears antenna would allow us to find out if really nasty weather was heading our way, since there are no tornado sirens nearby.
- Dishwasher quit working. Until I got this nasty cold, I was coping okay. I used the dishwasher as a drying rack and could get quite a bit done in the evenings. Still, in a house that was built in 2004, you'd think that most things would still be working.
There are some more things going on, but as you can see, I am overwhelmed by all these opportunities. I don't know where to begin.
In spite of all this, I'm optimistic that things will get better. Faith plays a strong rôle in my life. And I know that out there somewhere lies a solution. I look forward to the day when I meet that solution.
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