The Things That Slow Me Down

September 26, 2007
So perhaps it is not just the culture that slows my pace of life down. I am thinking that my mistakes contribute to why I sometimes do not get much done. First, of all the power outages continue to follow me. Last night at a Bible Study a transformer down the street blew. The house I was staying at did not have electric either and theirs was the house that I escaped to last week when the electric went off somewhere else. Then today, many things slowed my pace down. The first major one was when I went to the post office. I took out my keys and inserted a key into the box, turned it, and it did not open. Looking down at the key, I realized with horror that I had inserted the wrong one (and the two keys are clearly different, but beside each other on the key ring). Try as I might I could not remove the key. I sheepishly went to the counter and asked for help. A man came and gave a try but left again to get pliers. He finally removed the key but had pulled with such force that he fell backwards on the ground (thankfully he was only kneeling and I think he was being dramatic). I did have mail which was a good thing considering all of the trouble I went to to get it. As it turns out the fee for replacing the lock and key was not much so next week all should be well. Typically I only go there once a week anyway because it is out of the way and usually I do not have much mail.

The second event was with the vehicle I was driving – as usual. I was leaving a Coffee shop and when I went to start the car, I could not turn the key. Somehow I had locked the steering wheel in place when I parked it and though I tried, I was not figuring out how to turn the steering wheel and key at the same time or with the right force. And of course this all set the alarm off so I had to silence it every few seconds. A friend was nearby and drove over and unlocked the wheel for me, but I need to figure out how not to do what I did again. By the close of the day I have realized that I cannot blame the culture for its slow pace when I have a knack for creating situations that slow my life down considerably. Maybe I need to consciously choose to slow down and then I will not have to find unplanned ways to slow down. Just a thought.