KevinChilds.com

Sometimes you feel like you’ve just got license to whine.  Right?  (Please say yes)

So I’m battling this bug, cold, sinus infection, whatever is making my head hurt/throat chafe/nose run/energy abandon me.  Some of you have danced with this thing recently.  I spend my afternoon painting a room in a house I’m moving OUT of,  and I finish just in time to argue (loudly) with my wife about how to fit all the crap that’s left at the old house into the ROCK van so she can nickel and dime people into buying some of our unwanted crap at a yet-to-be-scheduled yard sale.  And I’m bleeding from … well, I don’t know what nicked me.  And with blood running down my arm, a wife who is still “organizing” our exit from the old house, and paint all over me, I realize that I have missed the first part of 24.  I know, I know.  But I’m not divorcing her … because I’m just THAT spiritual.

After watching Jack Bauer elude the bureaucrats and escape into the night, I decided to end my day by hooking up the dryer.  But no.  Heck, no.  The rocket scientist who sold my wife the venting duct and o-ring only sold her ONE o-ring.  I’m no freaking Mr. Fix-it, but I do know that dryer exhaust duct has TWO ends and TWO ends require TWO o-rings.  So I take my bloody arm and painty hands (and my not-exactly-like-Jesus-attitude) to Wal-Mart where – of course – the door where I’m parked is locked.  It takes me three Wal-Mart employees before one of them knows where the dryer part is.

Back at home I discover that nobody knows where a flat-head screw-driver is packed in all our junk lying everywhere.  And the one little screw on the back of the dryer where I need to change out the 3-prong electrical cord for the 4-prong ISN’T a normal screw.  It’s a little hex-nut thingamajig.  Note to world:  Clothes will NOT be washed this evening at the new Childs house.  Praise report:  I STILL haven’t cussed out loud throughout this delightful evening.  I’m just THAT spiritual.

And JUST when my whining is in full stride, I stumble on an article about what to do if you’ve been laid off.  Sighhhhhhhhh. Compared to folks who have lost their jobs, what the heck am I whining about?   A sniffle, a nuisance, an argument.  What are those things, really?   I feel like I owe an apology to the people who have real reasons to stress out.  So I canceled my pity party.  I’m going to pray myself to sleep asking God to take care of any of my friends who have been laid off.

And here is a link to a pretty good article about steps to take if you’ve lost your job: LINK