I’m kind of cranky today and not at all in the mood to write a blog post. Since I try to make everything I write about on this site uplifting, I’m just going to have to find the silver lining in every cloud passing through my not-so-blue sky today.
Our two-and-a-half-year-old refrigerator is on the blink, and I can’t get anyone out here to look at it until Thursday afternoon. One of the appliance guys I called said he gave up working on LG refrigerators a few years ago. Too much trouble and too much work. I’m tempted to get on Facebook and look for one of those avocado or harvest gold colored refrigerators from the 1960s that are still running even if no one wants them because of their color.
The good news is that the fancy LG is still under warranty. And if it wasn’t, I had the foresight to buy a 5-year protection plan when we bought it. I guess choosing a refrigerator just because you like that it has the same name as your initials isn’t the best basis for a purchase decision, huh? Still, when we bought the whole appliance package during the Home Depot Black Friday sale it seemed like a good deal.
Silver lining…the small chest freezer we bought was big enough to hold all the frozen food in the house. And the freezer compartment of the frig is cooling enough to keep a lot of the frig food cool. AND, we have plenty of coolers and practice using them after the 5 days we were without electricity after Hurricane Ian.
Then, there’s all the political news this last week. It’s been a mixed bag with everyone freaking out on both sides of the aisle for one reason or another. Honestly, politics is like a roller coaster every year, but this year it’s like the Top 10 Scariest Roller Coasters in the Country all rolled into one wild ride. What makes a roller coaster scary is subjective and we know that not everyone is going to agree on…well, anything. It reminds me of the old movie, Stop the World, I Want to Get Off.
In my case I would never choose to even get in line for a roller coaster, no matter how tame. But I’m addicted to current events and politics, to my utter and complete embarrassment. And addicted is the right word. I know I should just walk away, but I can’t seem to. I laughed a few weeks ago when I heard about someone who’d done something they really didn’t want to do because of FOMO (fear of missing out). I thought, for a moment, how ridiculous that is, until I realized I have the same idiotic affliction related to politics.
Silver lining…I can keep my politics to myself if I’m among people who aren’t interested. That helps keep my personal relationships healthy even when my own mess-up head wants to disown itself.
Another thing that’s weighing on me is an e-mail Randy and I each got from a long-time friend. We’ve known this guy for more than 40 years. We haven’t been terribly close since we moved away from California where we all lived in the early 1990s, but we’ve kept in touch and enjoy catching up every year or two. The e-mail said. “Only one way to say this, so I’ll just blurt it out. I have been diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer. Average life expectancy is 18 months. I start Chemotherapy next week. It was nice knowing you!” What do you say to that?
Having just over a year under my belt since I had to make a lot of decisions about a second cancer journey of my own, I thought I might be able to craft a reply based on some experience. But I actually don’t have experience with an 18-month life expectancy prognosis so I’m still mulling over how I’m going to respond to him.
Silver lining…Randy wrote an outstanding reply to his e-mail. I’m grateful for a husband who is so good at bolstering and encouraging. Randy is able to say things in a manner that speaks truth, offers solace without false hope, and gives a body something to ponder and decide about how to live the balance of one’s life. None of us get out of here alive. The question is how we choose to live.
Which, I guess, brings me back, full-circle, to my crankiness.
I have much to be thankful for. I can afford the $20 or so in ice it’s going to take to get through to the arrival of the appliance repair technician on Thursday. No matter who is president (or supervisor of elections or sheriff or congressperson or senator, for that matter) Jesus is King. And I understand deep in my being that we’re dying from the moment we’re born so, after two bouts of cancer, I’ve made a decision that I’m going to LIVE in the best way I know how right up till the moment I die.
When I was in Wisconsin with my mother last month, we talked a lot about attitude. I admit there are days when I’m cranky or melancholy, or just in a funk I can’t quite define. It’s hard on some of those days to know and understand that there are different choices I can make, effort I can undertake, to pull up my big girl panties and lift myself out of the abyss I seemed to slip into. More often than not, I just don’t want to make that effort. But I do, because, as tempting as it might be sometimes, I don’t want to live in Funkyville.
I made the effort to write this blog and what do you know? I’m feeling better already!
P.S. I must not be as much of a political junkie as I thought. I had to look up J.D. Vance to find out anything about him. He’s written what sounds like an interesting book which I ordered. It’s called Hillbilly Elegy. I don’t know the word elegy so if nothing else, J.D. Vance has already contributed to the expansion of my vocabulary.
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