Am I the only one or has this happened to you as well?
You are trying to get somewhere on time, you are late, but you can make it if the lights allow it and the traffic smooths out.
But, no…it will never happen since you will hit every red light on your way to your destination. Not only hit them but get stuck in one for God only knows for how long since the light is frozen and no one will move. You end up being very late.
Detours? You want them? Then try a new route on a day that you have not allowed enough time for your schedule. You might remember that there was a building on that corner just last month and now, would you just look at that? Totally gone and no less than ten dump trucks and some very large cement mixers just idling and blocking two lanes of traffic…the lanes are squeezed down to just one open one and the traffic cop is waving at least fifty cars through from the other lane and three from your lane. You are trying to call and tell them you are stuck in traffic, but alas, no cell signal so you are in no man’s land in the middle of some very large America city.
On the other hand, you have plenty of time, (for a doctor’s appointment) and can afford some stops and what do you get? Green lights all the way, traffic is nonexistent and what there is…is moving at eighty miles an hour. You arrive with an hour to spare and nothing to read except five-year-old copies of People magazine telling you stuff about JoLo and Jennifer Aniston that you have heard more times than you would like. Robin Williams died? Who knew?
Then how about this one. Now we get texts in our cars, so you are driving to your next point of contact and ‘bing’ here comes a text …you can punch the ‘listen’ feature but the message is too faint to hear correctly. Is your next appointment cancelling on you? Do you need to call someone? Is someone hurt?
Normally you can pull over and check out what the text says, but no, not now since you are on a toll road with the next exit being seventeen miles away. Seventeen long, long miles away.
You go to the grocery store, pick up a few things and head to the checkout line, the self-check stations are full or broken, and you get in line behind someone with about half a basket full. Should be a piece of cake, right?
Wrong.
This person has a catalog of coupons, many of which have expired or are for different products and they want to argue over how much to pay. Then their credit card won’t work or read properly and the cashier has to manually type in the numbers all the time you are waiting and watching your ice cream defrost in front of you. You think she is about to get it finished and you should be good to go when she jumps up and tells everyone that she forgot something and will be back in a second. Of course, the ‘something’ is in the very back of the store and she returns with a smile five or so minutes later. You just have to smile back and think pleasant thoughts.
The very worst place for this to happen is the post office. You have four or five large envelopes or boxes and your very elderly Aunt is sitting in the car with the motor running and you get behind the guy who wants to look at the commemorative stamps honoring the astronauts.
All of them. Every one of them.
Oh, yes and those new ones that have the lovely flowers on them, as well.
In addition to this you drank too much coffee and now you have to …….you know. You are bouncing from one foot to the other trying to mentally will the guy to select something, anything just so you can get out of there and find a public restroom, (there are not any in a United States Post Office) and then take your Aunt home before she misses her favorite soap opera and the Orange Jell-O at the ‘Happy Valley Retirement Community’.
Bunkie, I know this has happened to you more times than you would like… as it has for me.
So, I suggest you relax, take a deep breath and think pleasant thoughts about something, anything.
If you are late, then imagine that you might have been saved from some horrible accident.
If you missed an appointment, well if the person you missed can’t understand that things happen that are not within our control, you are probably better off not dealing with them.
Life is short, try to see the good in every event.
I live under the concept that whenever I step in a pile of horse poop…..I can always smile because I know there is pony out there somewhere. Always look for the pony in your day.
More next week ….
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