Unfortunate Events. Fortunate Timing.

I think it's a fact, though I can't tell you where I read it, that we remember negative, unfortunate, traumatic events much more readily than we do the pleasant, happy, good moments.

I have to say that after a long day of work last week and fighting a mysterious uncomfortable illness with John being out of town, I almost cried when I returned home for the night only to have the garage door stop midway down...for no apparent reason. I did almost immediately recognize the problem as an unplugged cord leading from the automatic opener on the ceiling to the power source. Unfortunately, the power source was up high and I am short. Even with the handy step stool I couldn't reach to plug it back in.

I realized then that a trip out to the shed in the backyard, in my heels, guided by a flashlight would be necessary. So, off I went, rescued our ladder from under no less than three other pieces of lawn equipment (apparently we have not used the ladder in a while), and trudged with the ladder back to the garage where I was able to plug the garage door opener back in. Problem solved.

But I felt at that moment that every time John leaves town things go wrong. Terribly wrong. Why do all the bad things happen when he's not around?

Now I know, realistically, this isn't true, but it's how I remember things.

That's not the end of things gone wrong with my husband out of town over the last week. Today, however, I realized that the timing of certain incidents have been quite fortunate.

Last week (the day before the garage door opener incident, in fact), I lamented the fact that as soon as John left town, our heater stopped working. We had a conference call with our saint of a heater/AC repair guy who actually answered his phone at 9:30 p.m.! And who correctly diagnosed the problem over the phone and promised to come fix it the next morning. Thanks to a down comforter, layers of clothing, and some extra blankets I stayed toasty warm and our repairman showed up 45 minutes earlier than promised and put in a new igniter within 20 minutes.

Turns out the timing of this crisis was perfect because this week we are experiencing record low temperatures, days on end of ice-covered roads, and wind chills well below zero. And I can rest assured that my house will stay warm!

This week (of course, after John left for the airport), our freezer/fridge stopped working. Well, at least it stopped being cold enough and started running constantly without stopping. With the help of my dad and the internet, the problem has been diagnosed and I spent a good part of a day emptying out the entire contents of our fridge, taking apart the covers over the coils, and using a hairdryer to defrost the thing.

The ice build-up! It was amazing! The defrosting is just a temporary fix because something with the defrost system is broken, but hopefully things will work until a repairman can come out (or we can get a new(er) fridge...because if you know us at all you will have no doubt that we do not buy new appliances). With all the ice on the roads it might be a while!

So, speaking of ice on the roads. All these below freezing temperatures and record lows? Well, it makes it just perfect for storing all our food out on the patio or in the garage while the fridge is out of commission. Great timing, huh?

Things may go wrong...or should I say will go wrong...but the timing has been perfect. I'm going to focus on that!