Tag: burrito

Writing for a Miracle: Part 2

Part 1

I called Home Depot again this morning; no joy.

Then, about an hour later, Diane from the pro desk called and said someone had returned my notebook. Wow. Yeah!

I was outside at the time, about to remove a stump with the backhoe. I promptly tried to return the tractor to the garage but forgot the roll bar was up. When the roll bar is up it impacts the top of the garage door.

With the roll bar down, the tractor fits nicely in the garage. With it up, bad things happen.

The extended roll bar ripped off the trim from the outside of the garage as I tried to drive it in…so I know what I’ll be fixing later today.

In my excitement to get my notebook back, I forgot to lower the roll bar and took out some trim. Oops. It happens. The shoulder puncture wound I could have gone without.

I also managed to have my shoulder stop a piece of falling trim. A nail punctured my right shoulder to the depth of about an inch. That smarts. After stopping the copious amounts of spurting blood, applying antiseptic, bandaging my shoulder and changing shirts, I popped two vitamin I tablets (ibuprofen).

This angle doesn’t show the cotton ball sized swelling under that bandage. When an inch of nail punctures your shoulder and bottoms out on bone, it hurts. Don’t worry, I’ll make it.

At Home Depot, I found Diane and got my notebook back, minus my pen. I’m conflicted on what my reaction should be. Who returns a notebook after stealing a nice pen from it? The way I add up karma points, returning one item while stealing another does not leave you at the same place as you started.

But maybe that’s not the best way to think about this. After all, I have the opportunity to create any story in my head about what happened, since I wasn’t there and will never know. So perhaps I should choose to see two people, the first person on the scene stole my birthday pen while the second person retuned the notebook. This scenario leaves me much happier. Thank you for returning my notebook.

The notebook is back, but notice the empty pen loop on the right side. Taking things that aren’t yours isn’t nice.

On the way home I stopped at The Abide Ride a burrito food truck in Aspen Park. I needed a pick me up. Wouldn’t it be great, I thought to myself, if they had Mexican Coke?

And as it turns out, that’s what I saw listed on the menu board.

“Sausage burrito and a Mexican Coke, please,” I said.

“We don’t have any Mexican Coke. Sorry. We have Coke in a can though,” said the woman in the truck.

“Uhhh. Oh well. It’s listed on the board. After the day I had I was really looking forward to a Mexican Coke. I can’t drink the canned stuff. It’s not the same,” I uttered, disappointed.

“Well I can’t get a new board every time something on the menu changes,” she said back to me. Here was an option that I would never have considered. A new one every time something changes. Seemed a bit extreme.

“Ok.” I said as politely as possible. “Well if you wanted to update what you don’t offer any more, perhaps you could just cover up the Mexican Coke portion.” With tape or a post it…or paint over it, I thought.

A noncommittal stare and my burrito were all I received in return.

So my takeaway is this: If you have a choice of inventing a story about something that happens to you, why not choose the best possible one you can? If I were sitting here, picturing a person stealing my pen because they felt they deserved it for returning my notebook to Home Depot, I would feel completely different than I do after imagining two people, one of whom stole my pen and the other a doing the right thing and returning my notebook. Try it out sometime, it’s a surprisingly cathartic experience.

Frustration comes from wishing things were different than they are. At the end of the day, all I can do is be the best person I know how to be and hope my kids take notice. At least tonight I’ll be able to continue writing about my life in my notebook, albeit with a replacement pen.