This Cat Likes Me!

BOX SCORE
Element	Current	Std. Range	Trend
Hemoglobin	8.0	13-17	^
Platelets	61	140-375	^
ANC	1330	1800-8300	^

Sometimes in life, it is good to stop and count your blessings, no matter what they look like. This is my fifth day home since I left Club Sunnyside. There was much to be done; things Jill was unable to do in my absence for lack of time or know-how, or just because they were low priority. 

Somewhere along the line, the remote control garage door opener stopped working properly. Now this is a first world problem, of course. I lived a good deal of my life without a garage door opener right here in the good old US of A and thought I was happy. Much like other things in life, a garage door opener is not a life necessity, unless you have once had one. I also include in this category an in-sink garbage disposal, air conditioning in my home, air conditioning in my car, heated car seats, a spare refrigerator/freezer in the garage, and I'm sure there are more. 

Each of these things I considered to be luxuries...until that is, I was called on to revert to living without them. Well, I guess the only one I have been called on to live without is the garbage disposal, since that device is incompatible with proper usage of a home septic system, which we have had since moving into our current home. 

Oh, and the garage fridge. We had two of them, including a used side by side refrigerator/freezer that I converted into a beer serving refrigerator (kegerator to the initiated) in which I could store several home brews for serving our guests. The presence of the freezer half of this apparatus was an added bonus, of which we made good use...until it stopped freezing our food. I replaced that unit with a more specialized kegerator that does not include a freezer. Ouch! We felt the "lack" of freezer space promptly. 

But I digress. The disabled garage door opener was more than an inconvenience. In my mind, it was a bit of a safety hazard when Jill was needing to leave our home and return to it before sunup or after sundown. That became priority one for me to repair upon my return. It turns out that somehow the wires that are necessary for the safety interlock that prevents the garage door from going down if there is a person or object in its path got tangled on the car and stretched to their breaking point. As a result the door could only be closed by standing inside the garage and holding the "close" button until the door went all the way down. 

The repair was relatively simple: splice the broken wires and reroute them so they no longer interfere with the operation of the door-lifting apparatus. It took me about half an hour, and a little help from Jill to complete this project. 

Another high (for me) priority was to get my pickup running. Well, actually, the engine ran fine. The only problem was that some kind of rodent had decided to make lunch out of one of the heater hoses under the hood. 

The red circle shows the hole in the hose, and the yellow circle 

shows some of the discarded morsels the critter left behind.

 The repair of this problem will require a mechanic to replace the hose and the heater control valve of which it is an integral part. In order to get the pickup to the shop, however, I need to keep the coolant inside the system. I was able to jerry rig a splice with some rubber tape, a plastic fitting and a couple of hose clamps. I think it will hold for the two miles or so that I need to drive to the shop. 

Seeing that it is a new year, I received a reminder from our accountant that it is time to assemble tax information so that his office can prepare our returns. This requires that I audit my Quicken file that I use for our home book keeping. I have that almost completed. 

All of this is only tangentially related to my leukemia. You know, things I would ordinarily be home to take care of. But it is a blessing not only to be home, but also to be feeling well...well enough to tackle these things. It brings a sense of normalcy back into our lives. It also is a reminder that we are just doing our best to tackle living, in spite of "complications." 

We all have them, you know. Complications, I mean. Maybe you, too, have health issues, or perhaps money is tight for you, or there are relationship problems in your life. Everybody has challenges of some sort, but we keep on doing our best to live life, and with God's help we are able to smile through and enjoy our lives. The way I look at it is that life is to be lived, and the challenges are simply a backdrop against which we have the privilege and God-given talents and resources to do the best we can to live the precious gift of life we have been given. 

The Apostle James puts it this way: 

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, ³ for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. ⁴ And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 4:2-4)

And the Apostle Paul wrote: 

I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. ¹² I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. ¹³ I can do all things through him [Christ] who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:11-13) 

And:

Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray without ceasing, ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

So, I consider these projects to be real blessings...even being without a SECOND garage fridge or a garbage disposal. Even having a hole chewed in the heater hose and having to repair the garage door opener. Even the dead rat I found on our patio this morning, a blessing. Hey, it was dead! And as our daughter said, "Some cat in the neighborhood likes you."

(Oh, and by the way, check out my lab results from yesterday!) Blessings all!