Editorial note: Opinions expressed here are solely those of the blogger
I’m a superstitious type; always have been. So I’m constantly mindful of the dreaded jinx. This makes it very hard to expereince joy. Now, I’m not talking about real, deep-seated joy and satisfcation. I’m referring to those seemingly little things that can make a big difference. So when something good comes along I’m reticent to embrace it because I’m waiting for that proverbial other shoe to drop.
Not to pass blame on a locale but I truly believe living in the Twin Cities fosters my sky-is-falling thinking and a big part of it, like everything else in Minnesota, is weather-driven. I’ve lived in this area for more than 25 years; it’s where I call home and on so many levels, is a great place to live. But the weather sucks; there’s no way around it. And we’re conditioned to seize upon any type of decent weather because we know it will be short-lived.
Yesterday was a prime example. It was in the high 30’s in Minneapolis, which for early February, is practically a heat wave. Speaking of February, the month always serves as a key winter milestone for me. I know that, depending on the year, we could have quite a bit of winter ahead of us. Yet February is when I start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel – figuratively as well as literally, given it’s light outside for longer in the evenings.
By midmorning, I was feeling pretty good. Work was going fine. Kids were both back at school and the house was peaceful. COVID infection rates, both locally and nationally, were falling. For a brief second, I truly began letting down my guard.
And, just like that, the power went out in our house, along with others in our neighborhood. Some widespread outage. At this point it was around 1:00 p.m. and my wife Wendy and I started planning the next few hours – where we’d go, what we’d do. We kept wondering how long the outage would last.
Fortunately, even though it felt much longer, the outage was relatively brief. Just enough to be a major inconvenience. And a reminder of how conenient our lives truly are.
Several hours later, I was standing on our deck, grilling. For one brief moment there I actually felt pretty fortunate. I just didn’t want to linger too long on the thought. Because I’ve seen how that goes.
Image credit: Adrian Regeci
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