First, there is an Internet rumor going around that May 3 is Mary's (as opposed to Mary Z) birthday. Just recovering from tax season she deserves a whale of a birthday so lets all of us wish her a very happy birthday and many more!
Dona also needs our help. We already talked about her sister-in-law and now she had a very frightening incident with her Dad. Yesterday right before dinner her dad passed out. They determined it was low blood pressure. Dona's dad has a doctor's appointment soon so let us all wish Dona and her dad well. Send more prayers, vibes, and good thoughts her direction.
Now onto seconds. Things that happen that last only a month, a week, a day, an hour, minutes or seconds can have an impact on the rest of your life and maybe even have your thoughts go from the fear of the end of your life to what you can do to enjoy the life to come. Maybe you are getting ready to leave your house and just as you are getting ready to start your car you remember you forgot your glasses and have to go back into the house to get them. When you go back out to the car and right in front of your house is a car crash. One that you would have been in had you not forgotten your glasses. Seconds made a difference. Maybe you choose to go into work a different way today and the way you normally went there was a chemical spill. A seemingly unimportant decision and yes seconds made a difference in your life. There are many instances where if we had turned left instead of right, where if we had left a few minutes earlier or later, where if we hadn't stopped to answer that phone call, stayed a little longer at our parents or friends, canceled a flight because someone in the family was ill or maybe just because you had a feeling, a different decision a few seconds or minutes and your life changes forever.
The reason I am thinking about this today is because of what happened yesterday. On the morning news they didn't predict severe thunderstorms in the Portland area. But wow did we have a storm. One they are now calling severe and deadly. It didn't last very long but storms with wind gusts of 50 miles per hour, baseball size hail, rain drops the size of a small van don't really have to last long to knock out power, to blow down trees, or to stop traffic in its tracks. I should have stayed at Mom's and played that one more game of Scrabble that she wanted to play. Nope, I already had lost two games and didn't really want to lose a third. I mean we had agreed to the best two out of three before we started playing. And agreements just are not meant to be broken. I should have broken the agreement because not to do so put me in a very frightening situation. I haven't been that scared in quite a while. I left Mom's and headed the four miles towards my house, on the main highway, 99-W. Got maybe two miles and the storm hit. I'm telling you that it was a complete blanket of rain and hail that covered the car windshield. I couldn't see, completely blinded by the storm. Driving 55 miles per hour down a highway and then magically being blinded is quite frightening. I couldn't see anything in front of me, couldn't see 50 feet let alone an inch. Of course I immediately slowed down and pulled over even though I couldn't see what I was pulling over to. Fortunately is was a safe place to park. Several cars kept traveling even though they couldn't have possibly seen either. But when the storm stopped and the vision returned there were four or five cars that had pulled over right in front of me. Thank goodness for the smart drivers that had the brains to pull over. I'm not sure what the others were thinking. I should have played another game of Scrabble with my Mom. Then the awful fear never would have happened. How happy I was to get home.
In this morning's Oregonian there was a story about a person, they haven't been identified yet, killed when a tree was blown over and landed on top of their car they were making a turn on to a different street. A different turn. One more game. A different way home. A stop until the storm stopped. Slowing down just a tad so that he would have been at that turn seconds later . His or her family wouldn't be in mourning today.
When was the last time that a seemingly unimportant decision impacted your life? When was the last time that a few seconds changed the course of your life?
About Me
- William J.
- First, I think the birth sign is wrong. 6-21, some papers say Gemini, some Cancer. Guess that means I have so many personalities that I can do group therapy alone. For those that don't know how to read Google profiles I have put what I really mean in ( ). Hot (Good looking enough to be in movies(if I buy at ticket). A body like a God (Buddha). Romantic (Thinks begging is foreplay.) Physically fit (Heart trouble. Put 911 on speed dial before we get initmate.) Good Provider (has good life insurance in case you forget to put 911 on speed dial.) Loyal (has reference letters from Mom and parole officer.) Intelligent (scored 1600 on his SATS but you have to total the scores of the four times that I took the test.) Looking for someone compatible (Be between 30 & 99 and not inflatable.)
11 comments:
Happy Birthday, Mary - and many more!
Things do seem to come in bunches, Dona. Lots of hugs and good thoughts from this direction, too.
Glad you got home safely, Bill. I know how scary that can be.
Dona, see Saturday's comments re your dad. I hope everything continues fine.
Mary, here's a second Happy Birthday wish for you. Hope it's a great one.
Now to "seconds". Here are two occurrences that happened at the same corner within a few months of each other. It's a corner with a stoplight where my street crosses a main street. I cross the main street, or turn left onto it twice a day every day, at least. One night, I was waiting at the light to cross. It's a long signal, so I had the car in neutral. The light turned green, but my attention was elsewhere, so a second to register the light and another second to shift into drive, and during those two seconds, a guy barreled right through the red light and if I'd been quicker off the mark, he'd have t-boned me. Hard. Now I always wait an extra second before crossing that street.
Second time was when I was turning left at the signal and a guy fleeing the cops ran the red light, hit my bumper a glancing blow and then crashed into a parked truck. I was fine, with only some red paint from his car on my bumper, but I sure stopped that car chase!
The funny thing was that I knew it was going on, having seen it on tv, and I had deliberately put off going out until the chase was on another street a couple of miles away. Never thought he'd come back after I'd decided it was safe.
I don't think of myself as superstitious, but I do catch myself wondering if I should take a different route here or there, since trips by the old route have resulted in, if not good things, at least not bad ones. I tell myself I'm being silly, but I don't always listen to myself. {g}
Happy Birthday Mary!!!
Hope you have a great day and many more!
Funny Bill but I missed the entire storm. We were at the movies during the storm, went out to eat afterward and didn't even know there had been a storm until I watched the evening news. The restaurant we were at did mention Washington Sq. had no power and I received an email from a friend telling me power was out, but that's all I knew. Isn't that funny, but our decision to be at the movie theatre at that time, may have "saved us" from driving in it as well. There was no power failure at the theatre either.
Saw "The Soloist". I can't say I loved it, it was good, but also can't say it was great. Maybe the hype I had built up in my own mind was greater than the film. It is worth seeing but I also don't feel it is academy award material. Will be interested in what you have to say about it.
Best wishes to the birthday girl and my thoughs are with Dona. Hope everyone is doing better and well.
So glad you got home safely, Bill. Sounds like a nasty bit of weather.
Mary, here's a double dose of birthday wishes. You share the birthdate with my dad, btw.
As to "seconds" ... mine have to do with Himself and involve the 9-1/2 years he worked in Tchad Africa. First time, my sister and I were talking LD and kind of laughing about the fact they'd "misplaced" a plane in Africa. Then I got a call from one of the guys on Himself's "team" reassuring me Himself wasn't on the plane. That seemed strange, since he wasn't due home for another two weeks. Works out he had malaria (no, nobody bothered to tell me) and they wouldn't let him on the plane as a medivac to France, because his fever was too high. That was the plane that exploded over the desert in Africa, killing everyone aboard, and was a mirror immage of the Lockerbie (sp) disaster. Himself arrived home a week later, to recover frrm the malaria. Then, in 1995, he came home and said he was seriously considering not going back to Africa, looking for another job. He was scheduled back out in three weeks, but had another bout of malaria. We agreed he should try to find something stateside. The plane he was scheduled to return to Africa on was NY Flite 800, which blew up about forty miles out of NY, with no survivors. Then there was the heart attack in 1999, followed by cardiac arrest, all with a hurricane hovering off shore, which he shouldn't have survived, but did. And the fact that Mom's Juneau doctor told her "your heart is fine." Her furniture was lost in transit, she spent a month living with us, which led us to get her to a cardio and she had five blockages and went into almost immediate bypass/open heart surgery. Without it, she'd probably have been gone in a year or less. "Coincidence/
synchronicity is God's way of remaining anonymous. There have been any number of small things that meet the test of "seconds" but the big ones stick in my mind. I have a strong belief in guardian angels (wry s). And, yes, all of this reminds us that today is what we have and, despite turmoil and aggrevation, it's best to find something to enjoy every day or at least in every week, because a lot of people don't live to see the next day.
Hi Mary Z
Good to see you and I hope things are going well for you.
Bill
Hi Pat
I was actually thinking about your experience with the police chase when I was typing the post.
The stoplihg thing had to be scary for you. I always wait a few seconds after the light changes too. Especially since the car accident I had in 1-08 when the driver ran a red light and hit me.
I do think of myself as supersitious. Always have been.
And I think you should always listen to your spersitions.
Bill
Hi Red!
I was wondering if you were in the storm and survived it. I'm glad the movie saved you from driving in the storm because it really was traumatic driving in it.
I don't know much about The Soloist but it did sound like a movie I would be interested in.
Bill
Hi DR
Been wondering if you were up to your ears in company.
I hardly think having malaria is a good thing but thank goodness they wouldn't let him on the plane! Not once but twice! That just is really amazing.
Amazing story about your mom too. My mom would have been gone too if Dr. G here hadn't had the guts to do an angiogram when no other heart doctor would do it. They found eight blockages and fixed six.
I also believe in guardian angels and think that I have four. Cousin Debbie. Dad. Aunts Ella and Clara.
Bill
Thank you all so much for the nice birthday wishes! What a surprise to come here and find them! Thanks, Bill.
I am glad you were okay in the storm. We didn't get hit quite as hard as you did, but it was certainly sudden. We had our company banquet last night. At 5, when I was getting dressed, it was 67 and sunny out, so I wore light spring clothing. By the time I arrived, at 6, the temps had dropped ten degrees and the rain was pounding down. Needless to say, I was freezing.
Wishing you all a good week.
Hi Mary
I hope your birthday was a great one.
I also hope the firm dinner went well. Sorry the storm hit after you dressed for warmer weather!
Bill
Post a Comment