Perspective

I had planned on hitting downtown Chicago today for St. Patrick’s Day.  Even if I had to sneak over there between meetings.  Turns out they had the big parade and festivities this weekend.  Today is just another work day.  Oh well, missed it by that much…

Not much is bothering me this week (so far).  With the new job on the horizon, everything else seems so small in comparison.  The flight up here was rough.  We bounced all the way up here and I had a screaming infant behind me.  I didn’t mind because I just kept thinking to myself, “This is the next to last flight I’ll have to take for a long time…”  The kid wouldn’t normally bother me anyway.  I gained a lot of patience for children once Becca was born.

So things that are SO important to you right now might not be as important as you think if you change your perspective.  A cranky kid can piss you off, until you have one of your own.  A bumpy flight or a minor delay can really set you off, until your mind is filled with more important things.  I’ll have to try to keep that in mind when the euphoria of coming home wears off and I find myself in the day to day grind of the new job.

The new job is already monopolizing my time.  I spent most of the weekend preparing and all last night filling out paperwork for it.  I bought Lena’s old Ford Ranger Sunday.  It’s in rough shape and needs a lot of work.  We got it home, changed the plugs/wires, put new wiper blades, added fluids, filled the tires and hosed it down.  This week Jeff is going to change out the master cylinder and then I should have brakes.  We figured out that it is a perfect vehicle because I’ll actually drive the Isuzu to work and Teresa will have the Ranger at the house in case I don’t get home in time for her to go out to Girl Scouts or run errands.  She can’t go anywhere during the day anyway because of her daycare but I didn’t want to leave her stranded just in case…  It has a tow hitch so I can finally drag my camping gear with me.  Of course, now Teresa is looking at getting a real pop-up camper.  If she promises to go camping more often than twice a year, I’ll look into it…

It’s a beater but it’ll run and that’s all I need right now.  Funny how things work out like that.  The job came to me at the close of a major project, the truck was about to be sold off and I got it just in time…  I’m not a major Rolling Stones fan but, “You can’t always get what you want … but you’ll find you get what you need.”