Monday, April 27, 2020

Hardship




Once upon a time, the husband and I experienced a bit of a hardship. * (see below)

Oh, I tell ya, we were stuck in a calamity,
our misfortune was most evident
and our suffering was clear



It began with the happiest time homeowners can experience:  the day the new carpet gets installed. The carpet installing men and women banged quite a lot as they stretched the carpet with their knee bangers. They did their job so well that they knocked loose a seal on a false wall in a bedroom.  When it rained, water coming from somewhere outside of the house snuck under the broken seal and into the bedroom...soaking the brand new carpet. A lot of presumably competent people then proceeded to locate the source of the leak.  The cause was "narrowed" down to a gap in the roof or the siding or maybe the window or perhaps, in the floor.


The husband and I were most anxious about this hardship.  There was rain and wind in the forecast and no competent repair person arriving anytime soon. And, the rain did come.  And, the wind did blow, I tell ya.   Soon, the lights flickered and all went dark.

So, now, the power was out.
And the house was silent,
except for the sound
of the rain
on it's way
to the
inside
of the

bedroom.


The husband and I made conversation in the candlelight for an hour or so.  We (me) then whined about being too old to be without power.  I needed distraction if I was to survive this hardship.  I found the emergency radio and tried to find a clear signal.  There was no clear signal.  All of the stations were all buzzy and fuzzy.....until, finally....one came through.

We could barely comprehend what they were saying. We leaned in, getting our ears as close to the radio as we could.  We turned the radio side to side.  We extended the antenna...this direction...then that direction until we found the sweet spot.


It was a political debate.

The only radio station that we were able to listen to was broadcasting a political debate.


We had a mystery hole in our leaking house.
An ill-timed power outage was making us cranky.
The grating racket of ever tiresome political discourse was most unwelcome.

Yes, the husband and I were in the middle of a bit of a hardship.

Oh, I tell ya, we were stuck in a calamity,
our misfortune was most evident
and our suffering was clear.








Our power eventually came back on.  We mopped up the water that had leaked into the house.  And we learned if we balanced the radio precariously on the back of the chair and pointed the antenna half way between north and north northwest, we could faintly pull in a mariachi band instead of the political debate.



I said goodnight to the husband and we joked about our hardship.
We both agreed we were grateful to have made it through this round of misfortune and suffering.
The husband fell asleep right away. 
It took me longer to fall asleep.
I wasn't feeling well.
There was an itchy tickle in my throat.

I felt a cough coming on.



*-mild annoyance