A Good Break
I made a pot of beans yesterday. Which seems relatively mundane until you realize it took a crock pot eight hours to do it. And yesterday there were people unable to even heat themselves much less run a crock pot for eight hours. When I went to bed last night, my kids in Houston were still without power. Just another example, as if I needed one, what role good fortune has played in my life. A life with little blessings sprinkled all around.
I got vaccinated against Covid because two years ago my wife’s neurologist thought I needed a counselor and hooked me up with one through UT-Health Austin. On their books as a patient, I got an email asking if I was interested when it became available. I said yes, they called, I got the shots. I bought a great long-term care insurance policy through an insurance agent I met in a chat room as a fan of The University of Houston in 2000. Bought for me in 2006, it ended up paying for my wife’s care during her final days just recently.
And then there’s the biggest break of all. My wife, who lived in Pasadena, Texas, came into a shop in downtown Houston where I, who lived in west Houston, was playing. We met, fell in love, and got married. Stayed that way for fifty years. Serendipity. And I’m just high grading my breaks. I dare say, if I sat down and wrote them out, starting with the meeting of my parents, a girl from Ohio meeting a boy from Texas, in Corpus during the war, it would be a long list. So, if you’re reading this in Texas and you’re locked in the house, it might be a fun thing to do today, to list how many good things have happened to you, including, how nice it is this cold snap will be over by next Sunday.