By Trent Rosser
Bad days happen to all of us. I have constantly said that we need to appreciate the bad days. Otherwise, if we didn't appreciate the bad days, how could we be thankful for the good days. No one is perfect and accident could happen at any time. Most of the time we have a bad day and then the rest of the week is usually good or, at least mediocre. Sometimes, though, we just have a bad week all together! This past week was like that for me!
It actually started before my work week started. The Sunday started out normal enough, woke up early and took my wife to work. I went and paid our monthly phone bill. We just switched carriers and on a two phone plan and it was supposed to be cheaper. I just did not realize that they charge taxes on both the phone lines. So after scrapping enough quarters out of the car to pay the bill, I headed back home to relax and watch a little TV. There was nothing on worth watching. Later that day I did something that I never do and my wife says I need to do more often. I took a nap. Not just a quick power nap, no, 3 hours later I made my way out of the bed. I could feel that something was wrong. I was starting to get sick. I toughed it out the rest of the day and went to bed early. Monday comes around and I have to go to Littlefield for a quick job. My throat hurt, head hurt and I had no energy. We get there and of course, it is a Monday. Everything that could go wrong, did! The job that was supposed to last 4 hours lasted all day and we could not get anything to line up right. Finally got it done and I was ready to come home and crash. When I finally made it home, I could not eat or drink anything. I was sick as a dog! The next 2 days was horrible. I am actually surprised that I am still alive. I still believe that death was knocking on my door! It even hurt to try to swallow soup!
I have mentioned this before and I will bring it up again. Why is there such a difference between men and women when they are sick? A man can cut his arm off with an ax and will ask for duct tape and a dirty rag to stop the bleeding. A woman can get a small cut and they break out the alcohol, peroxide, and bandages. Now when it comes to being sick, men are the biggest babies. A woman gets sick, she is still doing laundry, cleaning the dishes, picking up the kids from school, cooking supper and cleaning house with only a couple of doses of the good ole fashion nighttime, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, achy, stuffy head fever, so they can keep going medicine. Men can have the same issue the only thing they do is shove all kinds of different medicine down their throat and lie under the covers asking for the sweet angel of death to take them before it gets any worse. That is what I did for two days and every time I get sick.
Thursday comes around and I am feeling better enough to go back to work. Wake up early in the morning and overdose myself in medicine to keep me going throughout the day. Thursdays are also paydays. I'm still not feeling 100 percent, but I am much better than what I was. We end up going back to Littlefield to finish the project that we couldn't the other day due to it being too wet. Everything is going good and everything is falling into place perfectly. I had everything planned out for when I got off work. I would go cash my check, take my wife out to eat and then I would appear at the Candidate Forum the Amarillo Pioneer was hosting. Unfortunately it turned into another Monday!
“I have good news and bad news” said our foreman at 3pm. “Good news is that we can head home now. Everything here in Littlefield is done. Bad news, checks will not be here until tomorrow.” To me, that was fine, I could still make it home, drown myself in more medicine and go to the Candidate Forum. We loaded everything up and started our trip back. We made it about 50 miles when the foreman calls, the truck driver hauling the large backhoe had a blowout. He needs us to help him put the spare on. So we backtrack 30 miles to find him on the side of the road. After fighting the lug nuts, we finally get the spare put on. It was not a good spare. We were told that we need to follow him, to make sure that he makes it back to Amarillo. His top speed is 60 MPH. Well, I will be rushing when I get home, but I am still sure I can make it to the Forum before it starts at 7. We follow behind him all the way and just outside of Hereford, we hear a loud boom and watch as rubber come flying from underneath the trailer. Can you believe that he blew another tire. We don't have another spare. We call the foreman and talk with him a bit. We ended up chaining the entire axle up off the ground. I have seen this before, but not with a loaded trailer. After a lot of cussing and scratching our heads we finally have it lifted enough to drive it. Our top speed just went from 60 to 40. After following him to the yard where we keep the heavy equipment, I could finally go home and get cleaned up. I look at the time and it is just nearly 9pm. It is time to just go home and stay there!
We all have bad days and sometimes they are bad weeks and bad months. Part of human nature is that we focus on what went wrong and we don't focus on what went right. We complain about catching every red light in town, but we take for granted the day that we make the green lights. We expect everything to fall into place perfectly, and start to lose control when one or two things go wrong. We must remember that no one is perfect and accidents will always continue to happen. We must strive for progress and not perfection. Another thing about a bad day is that you can always just close your eyes for a second, say a little prayer, and start the day all over again. Even if it is at 9 o'clock at night!
