Welcome 2014

Have you ever noticed when things start going good that calamity is just around the corner. It reminds me of the foolish bird who waited too long to fly south for the winter. When he finally decided to leave it was freezing and snowing and as the bird struggled to fly against the storm his wings iced up and he fell to the earth. As the little bird lay on the frozen earth near death a cow walking by took a big old dump on the bird and buried him in bovine fecal matter. Things were grim for the little bird it seemed but the warmth of the manure thawed his wings and he began to feel so good that he jumped up from the manure and began to sing. A cat hunting in the area heard the singing bird and ate him.

This story has thee morals.
1) He who shits on you may not be your enemy
2) He who gets you out of the shit may not be your friend
3) If you are warm and happy in a pile of shit then keep your mouth shut.

2013 was a great year. The first few days of 2014.....not so much

Yesterday Mandy had a flat tire on her her car. I inspected her tires just a few days earlier and made a mental note to add a new set of tires into the budget. I was hoping to get them next month. She had driven only a short distance when the right front tire blew. She was so close to the house and wearing her scrubs she opted to limp it home on the rim. The flat tire was unexpected but it wasn't really a big deal. Her only option for getting to work was to take my truck. Two miles from the house she hit black ice did a 180 on the highway and slammed into the guardrail. Mandy is a cautious driver and was traveling at a low rate of speed but on the ice she had no control. I am so glad she was in the truck and not in her little car. She was completely unharmed. The big heavy tuck absorbed all of the impact as she bent the steel guardrail into a large horse shoe. My truck on the other hand was not so lucky.  We dropped it off at the body shop yesterday. I estimate the damage to be about $3500 dollars of which we will pay a thousand out of our pocket.  

    Upon arriving home from work on Friday, the day of the blown tire and fender bender, I turned on the television only to find that it had also made the journey into the electronics afterworld. The Seahawks are in the playoffs people. Going without a television is not an option. They say that calamities come in threes. I hope we are finished for the year.

    For several months now I have been writing about our many blessings. I, like the little bird, have been standing on my own little pile singing a joyful song at the top of my lungs. We are blessed.! There is no doubt about that but maybe I need to learn to keep my mouth shut. Hey it's only money. We can always make more but it was a bummer to have to take that little piece of plastic out of my wallet when I finally had it paid off.  We bought the best tires available. Mandy has to drive in icy road conditions far too often to purchase economy tires. Television are much cheaper then they were when we bought our last one. We spent the same amaont of money as last time and got a better brand and a much bigger screen. The truck will be home in a week and be fixed good as new. 2014 got off to a rocky start in a material sense but my Psa is down to 0.29. 

   Life is good even when it throws the occasional curve ball.

Thank all of you for reading my blog. Please feel free to share it with anyone you wish. Todd