Life's Lessons: Taking Things For Granted !!

Written 6:30 AM, Wednesday, June 9th, 2010: I'm sitting here contemplating "What do I do next?" I'm feeling rather helpless!! I broke my glasses a few minutes ago!!

I'm at a New York State campground for the weekend. No electricity and quite cold in my little T@B. I went to bed at 8:30 last night to keep warm--went to bed inside a sleeping bag inside a sleeping bag!! But I'm wide awake at 6:00 AM and I know it will be hours before the sun warms things up.

If you've followed my blog very long you know I'm hauling a wide variety of "stuff." So I braved the cold (52 degrees) and started moving things so I could get to a propane catalytic heater under "driver's side" bench seat. I piled the two cushions on top of the table and managed to get the desired heater. When time to light the heater I needed my glasses. The weight of the cushions broke one lens out and the wire that holds the lens appears to be broken too. I'm miles from a large town and my question: "Lorraine, what do you do next?"

FYI: The little heater warmed the T@B ten degrees in thirty minutes. It's now 62 degrees. One discomfort resolved!!

Something similar happened many years ago when I visited Yosemite National Park in California. It was cold, with patches of snow in shady areas. I wanted to put on a sweatshirt. That time I sat on my glasses!! I've been extra careful about my glasses ever since. I even bought a pair of reading glasses from Wal-Mart or chain drug store.

As I head for the car to check a resource I knock a magnet off the tiny refrigerator door: "God grant me the serenity to accept the tings I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference." (It happened; I'm not making it up.) When I checked the quilted bag with four zipper pockets, I found four pair of sunglasses (which I never wear) and one pair of my glasses from decades ago. With those..., things look worse rather than better!!

A bit of humor: The quilted bag has several small compass', several small utility pocket knives, a pair of gloves, an orange flag for emergency, toothpicks, a wind bonnet, and several guardian angels that clip to the car visor. (The KIA visor is too "fat" for clip-ons.) Also: Mace, a small hand-held siren, and a scraper to remove ice from the windshield. No extra pair of glasses!!