GatewayRedbirds.com

Last fall and winter were rough. My mother almost died from a blood infection and had her leg amputated. My wife's aunt died, and suddenly we found ourselves owning a business we didn't really know. Then I trashed my shoulder skiing, eventually requiring surgery. The house needed $30K were worth of work to replace a sunroom that had reached the end of its useful life. Estate law, selling a house full of auntie's junk, taxes, etc. There were times I thought I would lose it.

But things have settled down. My mother recovered and is doing well. The estate is largely dealt with. The business is no longer a fearful mystery, and is doing well. We might even be able to expand it. The workers are doing a great job replacing the sunroom. Taxes are done. Mrs. Jack got a huge bonus at work. I sold some additional consulting work to two new clients. My day job at the university is fine. The shoulder surgery went well. Spring is here. The Cardinals are winning.

GRB helped me retain my sanity during a time when the opportunity to blow off steam for 5 minutes was a gift from Heaven. Thank you GRB.

Just remember, with a little luck and patience, the bad times get behind you.

Glad to hear things are going well for you.

If I remember correctly HJ placed in the top .17% of the richest people in the world, so things can't ever be THAT bad!

Painkillers just kicked in, eh?!

Glad all is going well.....now, go buy a lottery ticket!

cardinalkarp wrote:If I remember correctly HJ placed in the top .17% of the richest people in the world, so things can't ever be THAT bad!

I'm one of those Obama Elitists....

The key is that you stayed with it. you FELT like losing it but didn't ...

one of my mottos to live by is "things are never so bad that you can't make them worse"

at first it sounds pessimistic, but really its not, its just cautionary -- no matter how bad things get, there is still a best course to take, and throwing up your hands is never the thing to do.

when things go bad some people develop an attitude of "frak it! this blows! how much worse could it get!" and they go smoke crack or something instead of taking care of the day's tasks.

so i always say remember, "things are never so bad that you can't make them worse"

so my point is that the bad times didn't just go away, your luck didn't just change, you stuck with it and plowed through and you are reaping the benefits of your own stick-to-it-edness.

StatmanCrothers wrote: when things go bad some people develop an attitude of "frak it! this blows! how much worse could it get!" and they go smoke crack or something instead of taking care of the day's tasks.

My fellow crackheads and I take offense to this comment. We're fighting our own fight, ya know.

HJ, good to hear things are turning out well. Start planning that next hiking trip ASAP.

StatmanCrothers wrote:The key is that you stayed with it. you FELT like losing it but didn't ...

one of my mottos to live by is "things are never so bad that you can't make them worse"

at first it sounds pessimistic, but really its not, its just cautionary -- no matter how bad things get, there is still a best course to take, and throwing up your hands is never the thing to do.

when things go bad some people develop an attitude of "frak it! this blows! how much worse could it get!" and they go smoke crack or something instead of taking care of the day's tasks.

so i always say remember, "things are never so bad that you can't make them worse"

so my point is that the bad times didn't just go away, your luck didn't just change, you stuck with it and plowed through and you are reaping the benefits of your own stick-to-it-edness.

Good call Stat. When the amount of work and all the little to-do's almost overwhelmed me, i just put my head down and started chipping away. There was a period of about 2 months where I was literally doing "work" 12 hours of day for 2 months straight. Suddenly, the pile was a lot smaller, and the end in sight.