It is important to recognize and note when things are going well, when the news is good and events unfold without disappointment. Wednesday was such a day for me, and my family.
Begin with the late beginning. Having stayed up to near 3:30 a.m. Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, I slept in past 1 p.m. just because I could and because I needed it. Oh, the freedom of retirement.
But there was a list of things I wanted to accomplish and so, armed only with some tea brewed for me by the wife, I departed the house.
Since it didn’t look like rain was imminent, I uncovered the 2004 Mustang GT and used it for a sort of multi-tasking of pleasure and work. I took along my Beach Boys Endless Summer CD to set the mood.
Nothing says summer like the Beach Boys playing while driving a vintage Mustang. Just firing it up and listening to the burble of the dual exhaust, before the CD cut in, made it a successful start to the day’s journey.
I fouled up – or so I thought – by driving Goucher Street toward my bank in Westwood. Goucher Street has been a morass this week with construction and poor flagger coordination. But, just as I nervously contemplated making the first available detour, I saw no construction and proceeded.
At the bank, where a wait for a teller has been standard operating procedure for the past year or so, there was no line and so I was in and done in minutes.
Then it was on to just past Thomas Mills, to check on the progress of work on the balky convertible top of my other Mustang.
The sun was shining as I arrived, literally and figuratively. There was my Mustang with its convertible top up and in place, which had not happened in the past two-plus years. Efforts to find someone willing and able to work on it had been frustrating,
But, Chance of Thomasdale Machine, whose praises I have sung here in the past and likely will sing again soon, was in the car, taking it for a short ride to check on some other work he’d performed.
He returned in about 10 minutes and proudly showed me that working top, for whose frame he had manufactured some bars to replace inexplicably bent items. There are still a few loose ends to tie up with the Mustang, but I should have custody of the convertible in a couple of days.
It was left only for me to return to the other Mustang, turn up the volume on the sound system and drive back home.
Upon arriving here, I was pleased to see gold and silver both up on the day, which means my net worth was up, more than likely easily by an amount exceeding the bill for the Mustang repairs.
They must have been contagious, all these pleasant outcomes. I learned my son and two granddaughters, along with their friend and a female friend of that child’s father, had experienced a glorious day hitting thrift shops and a playground.
My wife’s day had been productive, and included a stop at a neighbor’s to have her nails done by an 11-year-old entrepreneur who makes house calls to raise money to fund the purchase of items she desires.
The rest of the day was more of the same and I am writing this shortly before the clock strikes midnight and Thursday begins.
The hope is for it all to continue. There are plans for the family to eat lunch at Hoss’s, which seldom disappoints. Who knows what other blessings might be bestowed on us, before or afterward.
Of course, there will be bad days in the future. It’s inescapable. But, if you remember to be thankful for the good times, those bad days don’t seem as dark.
Sam Ross Jr's site 