Sometimes, things happen that are really lousy. And sometimes, it doesn't even matter because it could have been so much more lousy than it was. Or maybe the lousy thing makes you appreciate how not lousy things are most of the time. Like this morning, for example...a really lousy thing happened.
Sam is now officially working for a local Fire District and had to work today, leaving me and the boys to figure out how to occupy ourselves...something that is much more difficult than it sounds.
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| How stinking cute is he?! |
I'm the kind of person that always likes participating in some sort of activity. They are not. When it's 100 degrees outside, I want to be on or in the water, sucking up the sunshine, sweating and salty and thoroughly exhausted at the end of the day so I don't feel guilty about watching a movie and eating ice cream (even though I probably still should). I like to explore and try new things and live life to the fullest. I try to save lazy days at home for rain and cold and wind and being sick. The boys want lazy days at home 356 days a year. They would be perfectly content never leaving the comfort of their pajamas, watching movies or playing video games and eating. I swear that 90% of their day, they have no idea if it's dark or light outside. So, getting them up and out without Sam there to support me can be a bit of a struggle.
I'd made plans with friends to go kayaking this morning, so after going out for breakfast, Dagwood and I loaded up the hard bodies and threw the inflatable in the back. We even did a couple of checks for quality assurance. After sunscreening ourselves and grabbing snacks, we texted Nora to tell her we were on our way, started up some music to get everybody in the mood, and headed to the river.
About 2 miles from our house, something huge and bright blue caught my eye in the rear view mirror and I looked back to see one of the kayaks careening through the air like a massive missile only to smash into and then SKID down the road to it's unfortunate demise. I hit my hazards, pulled to the side of the road, and yelled at Dagwood to come help me retrieve the poor vessel and see if we couldn't figure out how to get it back up there. It was literally about 30 yards up, laying smack dab in the middle of the busy road. We sprinted up the road, then, dodging oncoming traffic, grabbed the kayak and barreled back down to the car, where we noticed that an entire J-Bracket had snapped in half and bent the cross bars of my roof rack beyond repair. The kayak was tied to the J-Bracket, so when it snapped, the kayak went down with it, and I think that the weight of the kayak caused it to just destroy everything else in it's path...including one of our expensive paddles :( The other half of the J-Bracket was flung off into the bushes on the side of the road. Dagwood grabbed it and I had to climb up on the guardrail to reach the top of the car and unscrew the remaining parts of the J-Brackets and then reposition the other kayak so that we could put it next to it and tie the two together and hopefully get it back home. Cars were screeching by inches from us, I was balancing precariously on the guardrail in my sandals, it was roughly 97 degrees out...no bueno. We got it up though and got it home.
After looking it over, we noticed that it really didn't have that much damage (considering) and the car itself didn't really suffer any damage either! It really could have been so. much. worse. And if a car had been behind us when the thing broke loose?!!?...oh my god, I don't even want to think about it. I'm not sure what caused the disaster, if the cockpit just caught air and took off like a huge sail and ripped the whole contraption apart or if I hit a little bump that it couldn't handle...I'm not sure. All I know is that we majorly lucked out and I'm super thankful that I wasn't by myself...and that I was wearing shorts. You never know when your going to be climbing on top of your car on the side of a crazy busy road in intense heat. Be prepared, people. Words of advice.
After making sure the other kayak was well secured, we headed back towards the river. I was sick to my stomach thinking of our friends down at the river waiting for us in the heat. By the time all was said and done, we didn't even have time to go...our friends had plans at noon and we didn't think we could make it down our stretch of the river and be back in time. So, we went back home and prepared for a day at the pool. While the boys were getting their stuff together, I made them sandwiches for lunch and broke the handle off of the cheese slicer. And the handle of the cheese grater broke off too. I'd like to add that both cheese slicer and grater have been in use in our house for at least 5 years. sigh. I finally just grabbed a knife and hacked a chunk off. Oh, and somewhere along the way, I lost my chapstick with sunscreen in it, so I had to put SPF 30 sunblock on my lips, which is just about the worst thing ever...but not as bad as having sunburned lips. Talk about First World Problems, right? Lol!
Not lousy at all
Anyway, we had a great time at the pool and played around for a couple of hours. I think they had a lot of fun. I went grocery shopping and made my "famous" stuffed burgers...so. stinking. delicious. IfIdosaysomyself. Perfectly seasoned ground turkey patties stuffed with avocado, tomato and pepper jack cheese, topped with another perfectly seasoned ground turkey patty; grilled to perfection and served with mashed sweet potatoes and green beans. I amaze myself every now and then :) We ate my magical creations on the patio while Dagwood shared our horoscopes and we laughed hysterically and generally just had a magnificent time.
Now I'm in the market for a whole new roof rack and kayak carriers for a big trip I'm taking in 2 weeks. It would certainly suck for this sort of the thing to happen again...I don't think my heart could take it.
I've been getting lots of fun in lately though...I really can't complain. Last Sunday, the four of us hit the river and had a blast.
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| When we first arrived, there were a couple of dear hanging out on the other side of the river |
The weather held out and it ended up being just perfect. I got stuck in my kayak and had it totally fill up with water...losing my pants in the process...wait, let me explain. I had worn leggings over my swimsuit in the morning because it was a little chilly. Then, half way through, I took them off and shoved them into the front tip of my kayak. When it tipped and filled up with water, they floated out at some point and were never seen again. Luckily, I'm getting pretty experienced with digging our kayaks out of the dark depths of the Verde River, so this time I only wrestled with it for about 10 minutes. That night, Sam and I had a date night and saw the new Mad Max, which was pretty awesome. On our way home, I could see rain and lightning in the mountains and got pretty excited for some 4-wheeling on Monday morning.
I woke up early, grabbed hot chocolate, and hit the road for some fun. I did a little hiking too...but nothing that required the taking out of my left hand from my hoodie pouch or the releasing from my right hand the cup of hot chocolate.
I had misplaced my beloved fanny pack, so I couldn't carry my usual essentials and it was pretty rainy and cold that day, so I did most of my sightseeing from the car :)
I also took my bike out on some trails which was really nice. The rain kept the dust at bay and kept me cool...that's always a good thing. I did some actual hiking (once I found my fanny pack), got some pool time...Sam and I even managed to spend an entire afternoon wandering around Jerome, had dinner, and finished off with an evening jamming out to the Juke Box at The Spirit Room over some shots of Jameson. None of those things were lousy.
Maybe it's that fact that my job lately consists of listening to people freaking out on the worst days of their lives or threatening to kill somebody, or maybe it's just the idea of getting older, but my days seem so much sweeter lately...even the lousy ones. I guess maybe it puts things into perspective, or maybe I've just become numb to the bad days...who knows.
It's the last day of May, and this afternoon I was thinking back on the month and how amazing it's been. It seems like it lasted 90 days...in a good way. I've done so much in the last 31 days and I'm super proud of myself for that, and there's always more awesomeness to come.
I guess that the moral of the story is that, when you enjoy life and make the most of every day, the lousy things don't seem that lousy after all.