Adventures

Having grown up in a rural area of Alabama, I developed a lively imagination. One of my favorite things to do as a child was to imagine myself in some grand adventure where I'd be the brave heroine saving the day for mankind.

Being all grown up now, I've retained some of my imagination. I no longer dream that I can save mankind; I do still believe, though, in making normal life occurances an adventure. (Granted, some would be mean spirited enough to call some of my adventures "mistakes," but why ruin a good story?)

I guess one of my biggest adventures of late has been surviving the tornado which passed over our neighborhood. We were very fortunate in the fact that there were no deaths or injuries, and most of the property damage caused by the F1 twister was more inconvenient than anything else. I know of only one home in my neighborhood which had significant damage on the interior of the home (due to a fallen tree.) Other than that, all of the damage appeared to be missing shingles, downed trees, damage to garages and back porches and blown away fences. Mine was one of the fences that went bye-bye.


There once was a fence here.



Fence that is no more.

Then, I recently had another adventure which my son is having WAY too much glee retelling.

See, I lost my wallet the other day. Couldn't find it anywhere. Searched the house, the car, my office, my yard, in the freezer, in the laundry--nowhere.

I was running low on gas, but had enough to get me home. My son needed to get something out of his dad's apartment which is only a couple of miles from my house, so I asked Moneybags if I could borrow a few dollars in cash (since I never have any and the bank was closed) to get some gas in my car. Sure! No problem!

One problem. I managed to run out of gas between the apartment and the gas station. Now, I'm in grungy clothes, wearing no shoes and both kids are with me. Staying calm, cool and collected (while internally cursing myself), I walk to the closest gas station with borrowed money in my hand and borrowed shoes on my feet (courtesy of my son, also.)

Now, for anyone who believes that kindness is dead, I would like to state the sweet Texaco attendant who helped me completely blows your theory! She was so kind--allowing me to get some gas in a container and return to collected my two babies that I had threatened with death if they left the locked car--before I paid. She did this only on my promise to return.

I managed to get the gallon of gas into my tank and drove my car the remainder of the way to the gas station. I then drove home while my son called his Papa (my daddy) on MY cell phone. What did my son do? HE TATTLED ON ME! Told Papa all about my running out of gas. He then told one of my work kiddos the following day, making sure he did so as he was leaving the car so I couldn't reach him. On top of that, when Robin came by the next day, he took extreme delight in telling her too! (She already knew, so I blew his joy on that one at least! HA!)

I guess the good news is, my son is finding joy in my adventures!

“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”

                                       ~Helen Keller