A Challenge and a Shout Out

So, after a perfectly romantic and fun weekend with my darling husband it Cincinnati, Ohio (as a new friend says, Ohio is for lovers), my car went kerflewy. (That's the technical term that the mechanic used.) I didn't make it to Nashville from Ohio. After having a meltdown over that, I (with the help of a handful of relatives and my husband) made a plan to get it fixed and get to Nashville.

It eventually worked, my car is well again. As well as it can be, anyhow. It is old. Old cars, like old people, creak, leak, and sometimes need special attention. It is harder to have patience for an old car than it is for an old person, as the car is unlikely to leave you an inheritance or have interesting stories to tell, but none the less, they do demand this level of attention. Lesson learned.

But I do have a huge shout out to make, and since this blog is my most public vehicle for doing such things, I'm going to do it. I broke down outside of Louisville, Kentucky, and had my car towed basically as close to Nashville as AAA would get it, also known as Bowling Green, Kentucky. The staff of the Saturn dealership there couldn't have been more helpful and kind. I sat there from around 1pm until after 5 with my dog, and when I mentioned that I hadn't eaten since breakfast, one of the sales guys lent me his demo car so Calvin and I could go get a meal at a drive through. They also went above and beyond to find an out of stock part so I could get back on the road last night. It was awesome. If you need to buy a car and are leaning toward a Saturn, look these guys up. They were great. And they're having a sale.

I have figured something out about myself. I can deal with almost anything, if I have a plan. If there isn't a plan, I freak the heck out, and the freak out is not necessarily in scale with whatever has happened. I have a very limited reserve of equanimity, I've found, and I think I need to work on that some, because I need to find ways to deal with the crap that happens in life in a way that allows me to function and make up a plan as I go along. I'm not sure how to do this: do I need therapy or yoga? Xanax or the Buddha? Or should I take up some sort of extreme sport or adventure racing that would put me in the situation of constantly having to adjust my plans based on the realities on the ground? This is something I have to work on, and hopefully I can find what I need to get to a place where I have a well of calm to draw on when things go kerflewy, because I doubt even if Ed McMahon shows up at my house tomorrow with a big check or a brand new car, that life won't continue to throw things at me that will make me want to freak out. I also think it might be possible that my base level of equanimity goes down when I'm not exercising regularly. So maybe step one is to start running again and step two... well, that I've got to work on.