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Ahh, the long holiday weekend. Plenty of projects to do around this place. A couple of days earlier I went to the doctors for a check up and to get a flu shot. The long weekend rolls around and I feel under the weather. Scratch one productive day. On day two I couldn’t find anything. I had specific projects lined up and the parts that I know I have are nowhere to be found. The most likely culprit is me, putting them someplace safe. Well, they are still safe, I just don’t know where safe is. I’ve also been thinking about an ill family member who stopped speaking to me before the illness. There’s a pretty good chance we will never speak to each other again, and while that saddens me, I know that it takes two. It’s their loss, but I’m feeling it, too. Life is full of those "damned if you do, damned if you don’t" situations. So I guess I will be damned. Save a seat for me down there if you get there first. This situation is now the constant background to my days as of late. It’s like a layer of frustration that is always there, and when you get a few more things add up fast. Like this next one.
One of my daughters just bought her own place nearby. She doesn’t have an air conditioner, so I offered her one that we have that is not being used. Well, I went out to the barn and saw exactly why it isn’t being used. The fan speed knob was broken right off from it. I figure it’s an
Did I also mention that my property taxes just went up into the stratosphere and I made my first quarterly payment recently and now I’m flat broke? Hell, I can’t buy air conditioning parts if I want to continue having a place to live. That would add to anyone’s frustration. I also have at least four projects that are stalled because one item that I need is not completed and everything hinges on that. It’s beyond my control, so I just sit here and do a slow burn. That’s when a friend starts talking to me about another person who is a "pleaser" and is getting walked on. Well, I can relate to that personality type. I can be like that as well, and all it ever got me was trouble. So now I’m really pumped on frustration. I go out to buy one of the missing parts so I can get at least part of one minor project up and running when some idiot in a truck decides to ignore the fact that I am backing out of a parking space in a parking lot at the store. He lays on his horn. As I leave the parking lot I lay a strip of rubber. Know what? That felt good. Childish, but satisfying.
I should know enough to simply stay home when I am in this sort of mindset. Yup, we were all told there would be days like this, but a whole holiday weekend? In a sad and ill-advised attempt to try and salvage something, we jump into the car and head into town for ice cream. Everybody has their favorite flavor, and my fiancee’s is black raspberry. We get to the ice cream place and they are all out for at least another 20 minutes while the machine gets the new mix cooled down. Well, that didn’t help her mood. On the way home a squirrel runs out in front of us and I don’t even let off the gas. She looks at me and says, "You really are in a foul mood." True enough. I always do everything within reason to avoid hitting gray squirrels. The red ones? Not so much. This one made it to safety just fine, but I wasn’t my usual accommodating self. We all get into these snits every so often, where nothing seems to go right, and in the grand scheme of things none of my frustrations are a big deal by any stretch of the imagination. Usually this sort of thing is an indicator of fatigue or too much stress. So now I’m thinking it’s time for a nice vacation. Can’t afford to go anywhere, so it looks like a week of projects. Yikes!
Arlo Mudgett’s Morning Almanac has been heard over multiple radio stations in Vermont for 20 years, and can be tuned in at 92.7 WKVT FM every weekday morning at 8 a.m.
