I'm Actually Having a Good Day, I Just Haven't Noticed Yet

 

We no longer have trees in my fair city. We have treecicles! And even though they have no nuts in them, all of them are crunchy!

I have not left my house for a few days because of the weather. When I left my house yesterday, I found something odd on the back doormat. A tree! A whole freakin' tree! The tree in neighbors yard fell down and is blocking the back door. I now have to go out the front door.

One might think that having a tree blocking my back door would cause an unsightly lack of symmetry, thus reducing the overall splendor of my fine abode. But fear not! I have a tree down in the front yard as well. They are like matching bookends!

Speaking of symmetry, gracing my downed cable line in the back yard I also have a downed live power line in the back yard. Everything is coming in pairs!

I didn't even know that it was a power line. I assumed that it was something else because the power is back on in my house. A member of the National Guard was going door to door assessing the damages and making sure that no one is freezing or starving to death. He warned me that there was a power line down in the back yard, running through the tree blocking the door that I was thinking of taking my neighbor's chain saw to. (Urp! Scrap that mission.)

I called the power company, and the nice operator said that she would note the address and that they would take care of as soon as humanly possible - like maybe next week sometime, weather permitting. I totally understood, this place is a disaster area. There was no use complaining.

I have mentioned this tree to a few people, who invariably say "Can't you just lift the branch aside?"

It's not a branch, it's a whole freaking tree.

"Why don't you cut it down with a chainsaw?"

There is a live power line in the back yard.

"Can't you just push it aside?"

No, it's a whole freaking tree.

I don't mind that at all, though. What does bother me is that I just want to complain and say that I am having a bad week, and that the fallen trees are just the icing on the cake. I just wnat some sympathy. I can't do that though, the conversation always goes awry. This is what happens when I tell my tale of woe to people at work:

Me: "Tree, backyard, power line."

Fellow worker #1: "That's rough! We've been without power for a week."

Ack! He's having a much worse week than me.

Me: "Tree, backyard, power line."

Fellow worker #2: "Jeepers! That's terrible. I have just spent the last eight hours in the emergancy room with an impacted, abscessed wisdom tooth. And the pain pills the doctor gave me aren't working very well."

Ack! He's having a much worse week than me.

Me: "Tree, backyard, power line."

Fellow worker #3: "Wow! That sounds like a difficult situation. I just drove my car into a ditch."

I give up. No sympathy for me! I am living in the gawdamned garden of Eden compared to these people. And then I read Jess Wundrun's blog. Everybody is having a worse week than me! I should be kissing my lucky stars. I'm complaining that I don't have a decent internet connection, and yet some of my neighbors are still without power and heat.

I tell you, it is just no good being miserable when everyone else is more miserable than you. It just takes all the fun out of it.

I would just like to go to bed and sleep for a week, but I have to got to work all week.

Did I mention that it is snowing really heavily outside? That it is supposed to snowing really heavily all day and all night?

Yeah, I know. I am actually having a good day. I have no right to be complaining. It's everybody else is that is having a worse week than me. Sigh.