We were all home this morning, because we are all sick! Jarrod has a very mild case of croup, Bruce and I both have colds. I was working anyway, because well, why not? I work on my couch!
Anyway, we were all here when the doorbell rang twice. We looked at each other, wondering if we were expecting anyone at 9:30am on a Friday morning. (We weren’t!)
Bruce answered the door and there was a woman who apologized profusely for bothering us. She explained that she was a neighbor from down the street. None of her nearer neighbors were home, and she had a very serious emergency. She said that her husband had injured himself at his construction worksite in San Bernadino. In tears, she told us she was desperately worried because he lost three fingers in an accident.
I said, “What can we do to help?”
She said she wasn’t looking for handouts, she just needed to get some gas in her car so she could get to San Bernadino. She swore she was good for it and insisted on paying us back double. We told her not to worry about that at all, she didn’t even have to pay us back single. She said again that she wasn’t looking for handouts. I explained that it wasn’t a handout, it was love.
As it turned out, neither of us had any cash on us. Bruce offered to go with her to the gas station and fill her tank. She thanked us profusely and said she’d be right back, she just had to go lock up her house first.
She never came back.
Our first thought, unfortunately, was that she was actually just looking for cash. When we offered something other than cash, she considered her mission failed and never returned.
What a sad, cynical way to think!
I don’t know why she didn’t come back. We were both a little disappointed, as it was kind of nice to think that our Friday would be brightened by the chance to help someone so desperately in need. But do we have to believe she didn’t come back because she never needed gas in the first place? Is there some reason we need to believe the worst here? I mean, maybe a closer neighbor came home. Maybe a relative returned a desperate phone call while she was here. Maybe someone offered to drive her to her husband.
There are a lot of ‘maybes’ that are positive. I get to choose which ‘maybe’ I’ll believe. Maybe it’s naive of me, but I am making this decision in full awareness of that possibility. I’ve decided she didn’t come back because someone else could help her, not because she never actually needed our help. My day is ultimately going to be much better if I don’t waste my time thinking the worst of someone I don’t even know.
It’s unfortunate that I have to keep reminding myself about the choice I made.
***
In blog news: We switched hosting locations recently, and due to a bunch of stupid hosting mishaps, we’ve had a LOT of coypond down time. We aren’t thrilled about it. Truthfully, the down time is such a bummer that we’ve barely had the desire to blog. The fun is seriously hampered when the site works 10% of the times we try to hit it. We isolated the problem, I called the new hosting company, and they said something along the lines of, “Oh, our bad, we’ll fix it now.”
Nice.
So anyway, this means our blog will once again be running as expected. We have a lot of projects going on here, including a semi-major upholstery project, so I have lots of future posts planned. We also have several updates to make about Jarrod, who is now so close to crawling, he almost doesn’t need to crawl. He gets anywhere he wants at top speed, mostly by rolling and scooting and turning. He goes from his stomach to sitting and back to his stomach in a blink. He loves his toys, he really loves the cat, and he’s pretty much completely done with his size 12-month clothes.
More updates soon! :)
This may or may not be a reversable cable scarf knit out of a really cool yarn that gradually self-stripes in varying shades of red (and one shade of black).
This bear-print flannel just might be pajama pants. Not for Jarrod, for me! Because I am totally hip with the latest fashions!
This home decorating fabric may or may not be covering the cushions on half of our dining room chairs as we speak. You’ll need to tune in later to find out!
