When does it get better(((((OT)

Seriously though...at least you do have insurance, and noone was hurt! Still not fun stuff!

JK

Expect the plane to hit the new house later tonight... :-)

As most of you know, I am a professional firefighter by trade. A couple I know had her father die about a month ago of a sudden and fatal heart attack. Then, last Thursday, we received a call at the firehouse from this woman's husband. Could a couple guys meet at his uncle's house? They hadn't heard from him in a day or two and that wasn't like him. They knocked on the door and didn't get an answer, even though there were lights on in the home.

So, two of our crew went to the address, sure enough, the house was locked and by all appearances, there was someone home. So, the door was forced and on the other side of the door lay the uncle, pulseless and not breathing. The coroner and police department was called.

After everyone had done their thing, and the uncle was taken to the morgue, the couple was on their way home through some pretty heavy snow. On the way home, a deer ran into the side of her car, causing extensive damage. They finally got home, after waiting for a sheriff's deputy to come and dispatch the deer and take their statement for the accident report. Upon arrival at home, the husband had to get some sleep because he had to get up at the buttcrack of dawn to snowplow some properties that he had contracts with.

At approximately 5:00 a.m., we received a call that there was a truck on fire and they gave the location. Sure enough, as we arrived on scene, there was a 4 door, 3/4 ton late model pickup, fully engulfed in flames, right next to the building. We extinguished the fire, but unfortunately the fire had progressed so far that the truck was a total loss, a 2004 Chevy Silverado 2500 HD.

As we talked to the guy, I asked him if he had good insurance. He replied "I think so, but I'm not sure how they'll handle the contents of the truck." I asked him what he meant by that. He told me that he and his wife own a couple apartment buildings and he had roughly $5,000.00 in rent money (cash and checks) in a bank bag in the back seat that he was going to deposit when he was done plowing.

Think you've had it rough lately? Janet felt a whole lot better about her bad day after I related this story.

I was reminded again of that fact as I sat in my friend's den last night. Groans and sighs drifted down the hall from the open door of his bedroom. Jimmy's wife and two sons stood or knelt at his bedside, murmuring softly to comfort each other and offer strength to their husband or father as they watched him pick out his path through the gray mists shrouding the borderland between life and death. From time to time, family members and friends stopped by to check on him, drop off food, and pray.

Just hours earlier, I had been whooping it up at a well-deserved pity party. I was exasperated and angry at the hand I was holding. No doubt, my coworkers were delighted when it finally came time for me close up shop for the day. Despite turning out some office lights and the deepening gloom out the east windows, their lives brightened considerably when I left, my cloud of misery in tow behind me.

Only when I pulled into Jimmy's driveway and looked for an empty place in the apartment parking lot did I finally wrest my thoughts away from my own trials and begin to consider his. In the hours that followed, between visits by family members and friends, while looking at family photo albums and reading poems written by a loving son to his dad, my problems were pounded and shaved back into their proper perspective.

Driving home through the darkened town, I reflected on all the things that made my life so good -- wife and children, family and friends, challenging pursuits, rewarding jobs, beautiful surroundings, fun times and so much more.....

The house was dark when I parked the truck. My wife rises early to get to work by 5 AM, so I kept the lights off so as to note disturb her sleep as I entered my office to get some work finished up. I was exhausted, my head ached, and I wasn't looking forward to the next couple of hours of paperwork. Back in my own environment, wisps of self-pity were starting to creep in around me again. With the door closed behind me I reached my hand toward the desk lamp switch, and in the dark I knocked over a stack of CDs on the desk. Instinctively I made a grab for them. In doing so I impaled my forefinger on the hook of a spinnerbait I'd draped over the lamp arm, and instantly my fatigue and headache were forgotten again.

Yep, it's just a matter of perspective. I'm a slow learner and quick forgetter. I guess I just needed a sharp hook to drive home that point once again.

Joe

Of course, I would have joined in gleefully had it been someone else...and probably felt a little guilty afterwards... :-)