What an auspicious beginning: set an intention to post every Sunday and on week two, post on Monday! Here’s what happened, in the words of the inimitable Monk: Susan and I were out much of Sunday on a variety of activities: Sunday morning my quartet sang at three church services; then Susan and I went out looking at Southwestern style furniture; then my quartet sang at an ice cream social, then we went out for Chinese at one of our favorite Tucson Chinese restaurants with our friend Sylvia. When we arrived home around 8:00 pm, the a/c was off and it was 93 in our home. Yikes! We love Tucson…with air conditioning! So after nothing worked, we decided to go stay at our vacation club resort for the night, Worldmark at Rancho Vistoso, and try to get it fixed the next day.
I could have sat at my computer and tried to write this, but I would have been very crabby and decided that, although my intentions were good, reality bit me, and I’d do it after the a/c was repaired.
So we had a cooler night’s sleep than we would have otherwise, and got home around noon Monday to find that, mirabile dictu, the a/c had fixed itself overnight and the house was cool! How do such things happen? I don’t know, but I’ll take a spontaneous repair over a technician’s bill any day.
What would be the thought about this experience which might have some broad applicability? Might it be that there is no point to beat oneself up over a missed, self-imposed deadline? Might it be that “things happen” and one just has to roll with it? I saw no point in sitting in my unairconditioned study attempting to write something creative while my beloved wife was fuming in the next room over the heat, and while I was fuming at my desk over being hot and unhappy. Better to just blow the deadline and pick up the next day (or at least after the a/c was fixed).
Having the flexibility to do what we did is another benefit of being at this stage in life. Just the two of us to worry about, packing up a few things and going elsewhere for the night, not having to get up and get to work the next morning…all good!
The “shock” of turning 70 is dampening a bit. After all, it was just another day!
See you next week!
Well, David, your A/C story touched indirectly on the essential difference between a rich man and a poor man: a rich man jumps for joy when he finds something he always wanted but never had. A poor man jumps for joy when he finds something he’d always had, but thought he’d lost. Having lived large portions of my life in both categories (well, never really rich but it seemed that way), and finding financial and other limitations of advancing age, I rejoice over the simplest things, like finding long-lost friends such as … David & Susan.
Cool.
Hi, Mark:
Thanks for your comment. Yes, we do know about that essential difference, and it’s great to be poor with air conditioning in Tucson!
David