Coming Up For Air

It has been a wild, wild, wild two weeks!

The amount of stress and the situations that have cropped up in the past two weeks has just been utterly insane.  It started the evening of the 14th, when my car (a two-door coupe) started doing a credible impersonation of a Soviet T-72 main battle tank. The following morning, I took it to a mechanic to learn that the timing chain had jumped due to a bolt that had sheared off flush to the engine block. The Ides of March: a bad day to be a Roman dictator, a 2003 Pontiac, or my bank account.

Four days and several hundred dollars later, the car was fixed. Unfortunately it was not fixed in time for me to go to my weigh-in that week, so I have no idea where I stand (although I have been keeping up with my walking and have had a couple of good walks in the 1.5 to 2-mile range). In the midst of this I had the second midterm for my Project Management class, a class that is proving to be the Ivan Drago to my Rocky Balboa: I may win but there's a good chance that my brain will be damaged as a result. I rushed to get as much homework done as possible before the trip Sandy and I had planned last weekend: a semiannual bowling tournament in Las Vegas.  We'd really been looking forward to this trip as a chance to get away from the routine for a while and reconnect.

Unfortunately my mother-in-law ended up in a very bad car accident on the way up here to watch the kids. Her car was completely totaled, although she made it out with only a black eye, a twisted ankle, and some rattled nerves. Sandy went on to Vegas without me so at least she could get away while someone kept a watch on her mother to make sure she was okay.

Stress? Did someone say stress?

I'm a bit worried because I have noticed that I eat in response to stress and while I haven't eaten a lot, I have been less than faithful to my diet. I am trying to get back on track, though, for the weigh-in next week. But in the meantime I have been reminded that there are more important things to worry about. Much more important things.

I've come to view events such as this as God's way of shaking us out of our self-absorption. We get bound up in our own activities and our own lives and sometimes don't think of the people around us who may be hurting. Sometimes it has to be brought close to home. I am thankful that we're in a position to help my mother-in-law to a certain extent. I remember a time not so long ago when we wouldn't have been anywhere near such a position, and count my blessings every morning that those days are farther behind us with every sunrise.

So no, I haven't weighed in. And no, I haven't been as faithful on my diet as I should have been (although I've hardly gorged the way I did in the old days, either). But tomorrow is another day.