Murphy was an optimist, indeed

Feeling down? I submit that my day so far will have you counting your blessings in no time.

First, I'm driving back home with Linda and the dogs through Florence, and come across a city road crew who has left a load of concrete fragments on the road. Not surprisingly, I hit one, and by the time I got home, I had a flat tire.

Then, as today is tax day for us self-employed folks, I checked to make sure that my company deposited my fees for the past two-1/2 weeks. Well, they made a deposit, alright, but it was a couple of grand short--they, apparently, moved up my paycut a month.

To top it off, the nice man who came to change my tire said that the tire looks like a total loss, and since my car has AWD, I'll probably have to have all four tires replaced. On a car with 1700 miles on it.

Would anybody blame me if I went right back to bed?

But I can't, since I have to pay those taxes and so forth.

Yesterday was so fabulous, it's almost hard to believe I'm living the same life. I applied for a job at a local college, then remembered that a woman I took a writing group with worked there and thought I should ask her what she knows about the department and so forth. As luck (real luck) would have it, she turned out to work in the career center, and is such a generous soul she gave me a lot of wonderful advice and strategies, help, and a whole lot of hope. And lunch--did I mention she also bought me lunch?

What a sweetheart!

Yesterday I drove home with love and gratitude in my heart; today, my thoughts run along the lines of, "What the heck?!"

So, I've had me a real-live emotional roller coaster ride, and I'm okay about it. Truly, I haven't had a flat tire before, which is pretty remarkable for a 45-year-old. And I have documentation supporting the agreement I had with my employer, so odds are good they'll make good on what they owe me.

The tires, that I'm finding a little challenging to feel upbeat about, but then, I don't know for certain if I have to change them all or not. We'll have to cross that bridge and so forth.

And another thing: This is my Linda's 55th birthday. No matter what this day brings me, it once brought her on the scene, and for this all will be forgiven.

Eventually.