Appreciation

So when that big storm blew through on Sunday night, a couple of things happened…one, it knocked out what I can only guess were a pair of baby squirrels. I had the sad chance to find them on my deck yesterday amid the debris. Two, it knocked out my power…I was without for 29 hours.

Of course, this means no AC and no Internet. I was exhausted, so the latter didn’t hurt my feelings too much, I just went to (or tried to) sleep. The AC is a different matter. It would be so easy to get irritated with the power company…how could they not make ME a priority? Oddly, I was moved to pray for the crew instead. Their work is difficult and dangerous, and if the outage map was any indication, there were thousands of others in my same position. It blows…literally…but it serves no purpose to get angry. I was irritable because I was hot and worried about the things in the refrigerator. I was worried about canine overheating. But then I just reminded myself of what it was like to live in Littlefield Dorm in the eighties…no AC at all…in August…in AUSTIN, for Pete’s sake. It made my well-insulated little cottage seem cool by comparison.

So. Today I am feeling Appreciation. I appreciate the magic of Air Conditioning. It was delicious to need to draw a blanket over myself after sweating all night. I appreciate the workers whose truck woke me as they were working their way down the alley behind my house…I appreciate the way the knitted and purled those scary wires together to make it so the magic in my house would work. I appreciate the refrigerator the construction of which meant that my frozen food was still mostly frozen. I appreciate the canine wisdom to not try to sleep on my chest last night.

It’s all about the Attitude, isn’t it.