Surveyin’ da Situation: Some days you aren’t the windshield …

By John Matonich

I have always enjoyed my life and even more so since my bride and I retired and moved back to God’s Country. That being said, I have to admit there are still some trying times that can test your sense of humor, but with a little fortitude, even the days that aren’t diamonds can be OK.

This past week has been one of those trying times. Steph has been out of town visiting her mom and family downstate and left me on my own. This normally isn’t an issue, but just before she left we discovered our kitchen sink was clogged and try as I could all weekend, I couldn’t clear it. This left me no choice but to call a plumber. Given our location, finding one isn’t always the easiest,  but I was lucky to get through to a young man that has done some work for us in the past and he said he could send a couple of his guys out on Monday morning.

When I woke up that morning, I discovered the pain I had felt in my right leg for the last couple of weeks had caused it to swell quite a bit and I noticed some discoloration. Oh yippee, I said to myself. I had little choice but to wait for the plumbers and then plan a trip to the local ER to make sure I didn’t do some kind of damage to my leg.

The plumbers arrived as promised and were able to get through a good size plug of some type down the drain line with a power auger. Feeling perhaps things were looking up, I headed into town to get my leg looked after. Before I left, though, I decided to run the dishwasher so I could have some clean plates in the house.

I got in to the ER right away and the doc there gave me some good news. Although I had a deep bruise behind my knee for some reason, there was no clotting to worry about and I simply needed to take it easy for a bit and let the bruise heal. I headed home with a smile on my face thinking the worst was over. That was until I got home and discovered a fair amount of water on the floor near the dishwasher and sink. I guess I was back to the bug status and not the windshield one.

I got through to my bride to let her know what was up and she asked me if I had properly closed the door to the dishwasher. I didn’t know there was a special way to do it, so I said I would clean up the mess and try once again, but not until she got home later in the week. I guess misery loves company. She agreed to help me when she got home.

I guess it was her turn to be the bug the morning she was going to leave to come home. There must have been a wind gust earlier in the morning and it twisted the frame of the awning on the used motorhome we bought last year. Luckily her son was able to help her get the frame off and while she headed back to the U.P., I was on the phone with our insurance company to see what may be covered and what we were going to have to take on ourselves.

Fortunately, we have good coverage and I think we will have limited exposure on this damage. I was never so glad to see her as she pulled in later that evening with no other issues than being tired after all the hassle she had to go through. We ran the dishwasher once again, this time with the door properly closed and it didn’t leak a drop. Off to bed was next on the agenda hoping a diamond day was on the horizon.

I am not sure why these various not-so-good things happened so close together, but I sure hope we are done with them for a while. These types of days can certainly be a little trying, but the good news is I learned how to properly close a door and that may help me in the future have more days as the windshield and not the bug.

And that’s the situation as I survey it…

After a 35-year career downstate livin’ amongst da trolls, during which he built a successful engineering and surveying business, John Matonich is back home in da U.P. His column will appear here occasionally, don’tcha know. His book “Surveyin’ Da Situation” is available on Amazon.com.