It Was A 'Hee Haw' Kind Of Day

If anything could go wrong in my life yesterday, it did. Thankfully the Good Lord was gracious enough to allow me to laugh at myself instead of sinking into a pit of despair.

Nothing major happened...just a day of errors, delays and odd circumstances.

It didn't help that Jim was out of town for three days. Things always go wrong when he is not around. The evening he left our new puppy decided that he needed some relief from the sweltering heat of August in Texas...so he went under the house and chewed a large hole in the air conditioning vent. I suspect we cooled this area of Waller County for at least 6 hours before I discovered the problem.

Anyway, on to yesterday. It was late Thursday night before the boys were able to fix the air leak properly. It took them a few tries, but I was proud of them for not giving up until it was right. I never sleep well when Jim is away, so the two things combined made it easy to oversleep on Friday morning.

I needed to rush through the shower and get to work - quickly. However, due to a early phone call that took two hours to resolve...I ended up leaving for work without my shower and my hair back in a ponytail while still on the phone trying to find a resolution.

The few hours at work produced very little work accomplished before we had to be out of the office. We were having the carpets steam cleaned, so we closed up shop at 12 and I forwarded the calls to my cell for the weekend.

I left the office to drop some things off at the hospital for Debbie and Casy. (Hopefully he will get out on Monday -- if there are no further complications) I headed over to the medical center area, and of course I-10 was backed up by construction and thick with traffic while 610 had a stalled car. I picked up some shoes for Casy to wear around the halls instead of those slipper socks that the hospital provides and ran by the City of Bellaire to take care of a little 'business' so I didn't have to appear in court on Tuesday. (My first ticket in over 25 years!!!!)

When I arrived at the hospital, Casy was having a bad day with pain in his legs. It was agonizing to watch him in so much pain. After seeing a doctor and then talking with his nurse, we were assured that once the pain medication kicked in he would be feeling better. He drifted off to sleep just before I left and according to Debbie this morning, the pain has not returned. (Thank You, Lord, for answered prayer!)

I left in plenty of time to get home, get a shower and to meet friends for the races. Of course, if there is one rule of thumb regarding Houston traffic it is this: Things will be worse when you are in a hurry. A wreck on 610 at I10, a stalled car on 290...my one hour drive (with no traffic) slowly turned into a two hour commute.

I rushed in to the house, grabbed a quick shower and headed out the door. I had already called my friends to let them know that I would be late and to leave without me. I kicked myself all the way out the door. Why am I always the one who is late? Even when I leave early or plan ahead? This night out was my idea and I had asked them to join us...now Jim was out of town and I was the last one to arrive.

I finally came to the conclusion that it did me no good to be upset about it. I couldn't go back in time and change any of it anyways. I took the wrong exit and spent an extra 30 minutes in traffic that I didn't need to be in...but I did eventually make it through the gate and to the stands for the start of the third race.

I told my friends when I arrived that either my luck was about to change and this was going to be my lucky night...or it wasn't and I was going to go home with nothing. (Don't worry, I can count the times I have been to the races on my fingers and I take about the equivalent of dinner and a movie when I go.)

Let's just say my horses were not having a good night either. I think I cashed in two or three show tickets, had one horse pull up and let the others pass so that he could try to get to the rail, had one horse come in dead last by about 10 lengths and then the "doozy" of the night. In the last race, I placed my money on the horse who shared a name with my mother. In the middle of the race we saw a horse take a fall, dump it's jockey and roll over. I said to the friend standing beside me, "That would be my horse." And when it got up...it was the number 3 horse, "Is Special June" with her blue silks. I fell out laughing at that point.

As I was driving out of the race park headed home, I suddenly began hearing Buck Owens, Roy Clark and Grandpa Jones in my mind singing:

"Gloom, despair and agony on me-e!
Deep dark depression, excessive misery-y!
If it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all!
Gloom, despair and agony on me-e-e!"

I'm telling, ya'll...it was a Hee Haw kind of a day!