How’s this for a week full of things going wrong. Maybe you can top it, but I hope not… for your sake.
First, our washer stopped working. The replacement cost: $1,500.00.The next day, our water heater was the next to go. Cost: $1,000.00. Lastly, my son’s car needed a new flywheel. Cost: $1,900.00. Several other smaller things around the house also broke at the same time, but here’s the thing.
It could have been worse. Much worse. (And trust me, there are worse things that can happen in a week than this, but read on.)
I keep saying that because when the repair shop dropped the transmission to replace the flywheel they removed the front end of the car. When they put it back together the “mechanic” only hand-tightened two very important nuts. My son backed out of our garage to head back to college in Los Angeles when the front axle (and wheels) literally fell off. If this happened on an LA freeway at night, he could have been killed.
So, it could have been worse. Much worse.
Same goes for the water heater. I found a plumber to install the new one and haul away the old one for a lot less than Home Depot was charging. I saved $400. The washer dryer was a part of a Labor Day sale so we saved a couple of hundred bucks there, too. All the other items I fixed myself.
I’ve been giving a lot of thought to why all this happened. I mean, I know why the water heater went, my other son hit it with MY car. The washer was ten years old, so… What I mean is, why me? Why now? My answer. Why not me?
I’ll take the hassles and costs of replacing things because the past week could have ended much worse.
In the case of the car, the silver lining is obvious. For the other things that went wrong, I’m sure down the road I’ll see a reason why they happened. Or maybe I’ll never know, but possibly by staying home to wait for the repairman or do some of the repairs myself it kept me from some horrible tragedy if I wasn’t stuck at home.
If we take bad things in stride with the assumption it could have been worse, maybe we’ll be able to handle more—or at least deal with it better.
Comments