I could write about how this fortune will affect an upcoming vacation Jamie and I are planning to take (not that we're planning to take one). But I think the more important message here is to apply this fortune to our everyday lives.
Each of us takes a journey every single day. Some are literal and some are figurative. The journey I took today was a little bit of both.
Actually, my journey began last night, right around 10 p.m. I was sitting in my recliner, nodding off, and I woke up long enough to tell Jamie I was going to bed (hey, I'm old, I go to bed early these days). Seconds later, we heard large wind gusts outside and our lights began to flicker - and they sustained a freaky flicker for over a minute. Eventually, about half of our power was knocked out completely. Half. Our bathroom lights were working fine. The TV in the living room was still running. But in the adjacent bedrooms and in my office the electricity was dead. The light underneath our microwave still worked, but the rest of the kitchen was inoperable.
That means the electricity that ran our refrigerator was out. And, in related news, our air conditioner was not running.
When I opened the fortune today, one thing was clear. My destination - back home this evening with the electricity working and the air conditioner purring.
I left the house this morning to resume the journey, leaving Jamie behind to call the power company. A few interesting things happened on my journey:
1. As I was walking out to my pickup to drive to work, I stepped face-first into a spider web. That is unpleasant, and it made for a grim start to the day.
2. On the drive in, I was cruising down a 55-mile-per-hour highway at about 63 miles per hour. As I passed a tractor trailer, I saw a speed trap up ahead. I saw it too late - the second I passed him, he pulled out on the road.
I eased in front of the semi truck and slowed down to the speed limit. I cursed myself and blamed not my lead foot but the spiderweb residue covering my glasses, obstructing my view of the speedometer.
The police cruiser kept following behind the semi truck, and I figured he was biding his time until a shoulder upon which to bust my ass presented itself. After what seemed like years, he flipped on his lights and pulled over... the semi truck.
The driver wasn't speeding (or at least not as much as I was). He must have had an expired tag. But I was spared.
3. At my desk this morning, I realized my shave wasn't as close as I had hoped. A single mustache hair still remained behind, and it was bugging the hell out of me. I tried to rip it out with my fingers, which was really stupid and painful. The hair curled up into my nose, too, so all day it felt like I had a booger hanging there.
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| This is what I would look like if I didn't shave for two days. |
Finally, this afternoon Jamie sent me a text declaring, "We're back in bidness!" I took that to mean power had been restored.
Now I'm home. The thermostat is set to 71. The room is well-lit. And I'm glad to be spending the evening with my wife.
The destination is terrific, but it's so much more sweet after a meaningful journey.
Now I'm gonna go shave off my mustache hair.
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