March 16, 2012

No matter what you do, or what your plans, something will happen that will make a change in your life. It might be a good thing, or it might be a bad thing. You never know. Something bad might become something good in the end. I used to have a job and a nice house in New York State. I lost my job and eventually lost my house. The job market was terrible there, and I had a choice of moving, or freelance work. I chose freelance to keep my family there. I was so tired of moving.

When the economy crashed, things got much worse. Eventually we had to abandon our home and move back to our hometown, where relatives had a cheap rental we could live it. They had it because it was a mess. It actually rained in the living room when we moved in. The floors were mush from all the water, and there was mold everywhere. I had to staple up a plastic dropcloth with a hole positioned in just the right place to funnel the water into a trash can, that we had to empty regularly.

The bathroom was a horrid mess. The tub so bad that we would only shower with our eyes closed. It had been painted and peeled and stained rust with the iron in the water. I tried to remove the paint, but underneath was a pink, iron stained tub.

Eventually the relative put on a new roof, no ceiling for a year, but a roof. We eventually got a ceiling too. And we remodeled the bathroom ourselves, a display tub and relatively new sink and cabinets from a friend who remodeled their new home. It was so nice to take a bath again.

About the same time we lost our house, my cousin and her fiance lost their house too. Her father lived with her, and they all moved back to Cleveland. Her fiance got cancer and eventually passed away. But they were in town with his son and all of her family. It was a good thing that they lost their house.

Now her father, my cousin has cancer. It's not good. He may last a while, but it's not good. I just found out today, and have spent much of the day crying on and off. He and his brother are more like my brothers than my own brothers. I wasn't raised with my brothers, but I was raised with my cousins. I love them dearly.

This morning while I was waking up, I realized just how lucky that we all were to have lost our houses out of state. I haven't seen my cousin much, even though he lives close, but I've seen him a few times a year. I'm even glad I didn't have a car, because he drove me to family gatherings, and we spent even more time together. I'm even glad he got lost that one time and we were a half hour late to dinner, because that was more time to spend together.

You never know what can happen and you never know how a bad thing will be a positive. That's why when bad things happen, I usually don't complain or cry (except this time) because I know that sometimes it changes things for the better.

The recent events have put a damper on my sleep though. I barely have enough time as it is to accomplish all of my goals. Now I have to work till late in the evening to get work done. I'll be spending a bit more time with family so I'll be having less time at home. I'm sure though that something wonderful will come of it all though.