Sunday, July 27, 2008

Slightly Askew Cosmic Convergence

Those bright, chirpy people who smile and positive-attitude their way through life present a challenge for me: doesn't anything ever piss them off, get them down, send them into either a convulsion of cursing or a torrent of tears?

For instance, let's say one of those P-A people left on a 3-week vacation and came home to find their car is dead: totally, completely dead. Do they really acknowledge this circumstance with an "oh, that's just life" and "let's all move on" as they sing a chorus of the happy working song? My reaction was just a touch off that center as when I left it parked in my garage, my car was fine. My housesitter left a voice message that he drove my car because his truck crapped out -- and he's really sorry that my car is now dead. He called Triple A and the employee said the car probably needs a new battery.

Great.

I feel badly that it happened on the housesitter's watch, but, meanwhile, how do I get the car out of the garage and to my mechanic? The battery is relatively new, purchased just about a year ago and there may be some warranty left on it, so I'm actually hoping it's just a battery problem. I doubt that my mechanic makes house calls, but I'll ask.

I replaced the microwave that didn't work yesterday morning when I tried to use it. Since I had to go to Sam's Club anyway to replenish my totally empty food fridge and restock the beverage fridge, I decided not to spend time worrying about the dead microwave that could be used to worry about the dead car. While I was at it, I also threw a new keyboard into the cart as my recent $20 find refused to type double letters, causing a page filled with typos, all of which had to be manually fixed. That's a P-A moment, right, proactively solving problems?

My kitchen sink was leaking before I left, but now the water is going directly from the sink into the dish pan I positioned to catch the drip before I left on vacation. It appears that I now have a complete drainage failure. I hand-washed all the dishes left in the dishwasher and was glad it hadn't been run as that would have been an even bigger disaster than a leaking sink. That was pretty much P-A, right, looking on the positive side of a huge plumbing issue?

Mia is happy to have me home, George next door is delighted that I'm back so we can "talk," him in Spanish, which I don't speak, and me in English, which he doesn't speak, while I hand water the back yard. He had much to say last night, very little of which I understood, but Mia sat by the fence and listened, enraptured with his every word and whistle. After a year of spending time with George, I think she now speaks fluent Spanish.

Wish I did because then I could be bi-lingually positive as I put my dreary, everyday life back together and handle all the life annoyances that come with it.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Your friend who has Triple-A should call and use his card to get a serviceman out to you. He has 4 free calls he can make per year, and it doesn't have to be for his car. I just read this in a recent issue of Westways (Triple-A's) magazine.