THE JOB EFFECT

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Ever feel like one of those characters from the Bible? You know what I mean? You feel as strong as Sampson , as wise as Solomon or in my case, as unlucky as Job. Oh, I get it, you thought this was a post about a "job" or career, no, this is about the sky falling, like in Chicken Little or in more biblical terms; JOB. 
The Book of JOB is not a happy bible story. Job's life takes a turn from bad to worse at each step.God seems distant and one calamity after another falls into Job's life. Like Murphy's Law; Job had little going right, despite his good intentions. So I am having a Job moment or moments, days, weeks and didn't realize that even typing this blog was going to be a part of it.


As I previously posted, just a little more than 3 weeks ago, my husband had emergency open heart surgery to repair a severely damaged aortic valve. He continues to recover but certainly not without both of us realizing how easily you take the simple thing in life for granted Several days after his surgery, my cell phone decided to fall apart. In a wisdom of Solomon moment, call it stubbornness or failure to commit, I decided I would rather buy a phone from that great internet shopping mecca that begins with an "E" than have to sign another "pre nup" contract with my wireless carrier.but maybe it was more like impetuousness of Lot's wife making this decision than the wisdom of Solomon. The same day my cell phone fell apart, so did a lot of other things.

My husband is the ultimate "fix it" man, so the first question he asked his surgeon when we returned for a check up was when he might be able to get "back up on a ladder". This was obviously not a question the surgeon expected to hear from a man who does not need a ladder professionally and the answer was an emphatic, "Not any time soon...or even later."


Right after his discharge from the hospital, a giant heat wave which is still consuming much of our area, hit,and along with the heat, 2 ceiling fans arrived. They required ladders for installation. Two days after hubby returned home, we noticed the plaster bulging in one area of our ceiling. Within minutes every time we ran water in our Master bath, the ceiling below would bubble. There was obviously a leak. But who could know...it required getting up on a ladder and tearing out part of the ceiling so that wasn't happening as the doctor said, "anytime, soon."Odd things seemed to be occurring, the shrubbery that never grows during a heatwave, somehow took on a life of its own and overnight large amorphous shapes of greenery seemed to surround my house...too tall to cut, unless of course, you were on a ladder.


 A landscaper was called to handle the wild growth in the yard, a repairman was called to deal with the leak and hang the ceiling fans and of course, some siding (which my husband had just put up several days before his surgery) where the leaking pipe was, needed to be removed.


Day 4 passed and still no phone arrived. Trying to keep an active man occupied until he could drive or work was a lot like trying to get a colicky baby to just sleep.We spent every other day going to get lab work because post surgery medication readings were fluctuating out of control. Company one weekend passed the time but unfortunately our dog was bitten in the ear by another dog during the visit.


Day 5 arrived but the phone didn't, and somehow everything that worked whenever I had gone to bed the previous night, stopped working in the morning. My email program froze and it took over an hour for my internet provider to figure out how to thaw it. While tech support was helpful, they apologized for not being able to salvage my contacts. I thought I could deal with it but I soon realized that "guessing" what someone's email address was is not only ridiculous but downright dangerous after getting a reply from someone at "selected swingers" telling me they were sorry my day was going so bad but wanting to introduce me to the "swinging lifestyle." I wanted to laugh but my mouth wouldn't cooperate.


Day 6 arrived and still no phone and a very apologetic seller agreed I could have driven to get the phone from him faster than waiting for the mail( expedited mail yet!), however what we did receive was the first of many hospital bills; this one for $93,000! We have insurance but know it will not cover everything. I was somehow less than comforted knowing we had saved for a rainy day but not a tsunami.


The following morning, I went to get tires rotated and was told I needed front and back brakes. There was of course, already a pair of front brakes in my garage and a husband who usually puts them on....but not now. I headed for a place to repair brakes but the shop informed me that one of my lug nuts was stripped (by the person at the other shop who rotated the tires) and they could not simply repair the lug nut on this vehicle but that I would have to have the entire wheel assembly replaced. This meant not getting any brakes until I dealt with the shop who rotated the tires first.


My only comfort was a package containing  my cell phone purchase was waiting for me at home. I opened it up and there it was....the wrong phone! Oh, yes, seller promises to make it right and immediately(think at least 6 days)send me the correct phone. In the meantime, he encouraged me to use the phone I have temporarily. So I took the phone I didn't want and hadn't ordered to be activated but of course because my broken phone was completely severed in half and would not even turn on, I was told that none of my contacts were able to be transferred. Later in the day, I tried to call a close friend, but realized modern technology remembers her number for me and I no longer have access to that on this phone, so I attempted to email her and in the middle of the email, the mouse froze, hieroglyphics appeared on my screen and I knew I was just a few days or hours away from the big crash...the one where the computer just goes to that place of no return. Technology Armageddon is on my doorstep(but the correct phone is not, yet)


After rebooting, I finally got back on line and decided to write all this up in a blog post and even tweeted and posted a link on my Facebook page however, a friend informed me  there was something wrong with my post and sure enough,only the title and a bunch of incoherent nonsense words posted on the blog. It appears that my keyboard was needing new batteries and while I thought I was typing away, it was only accepting fewer than 1/3 of the strokes.In an effort to cheer me, my husband suggested going out for ice cream. It would have been a nice diversion had I not requested my favorite flavor to learn they had just sold the last bit of it just before we arrived. But,It wasn't the flavor, the lug nut, the leak, the brakes or even the phone that caused a tear to roll down my cheek, it was the sound of the swoosh I heard as my husband tried to hold me close and just let me vent. That swoosh reminded me of how much I love the man who climbs the ladders to fix so many things and how blessed I am to hear the swoosh as his heart beats.That swoosh is all I needed to hear to make me realize there are blessings I take for granted way too many times.


Today a line in a devotional I love, said, "I can do all things through Him who gives me strength." and I realized that this included getting through a JOB day or week or maybe longer.So before my hard drive bites the dust, I am rewriting what the JOB EFFECT post should have looked like and leaving negative feedback for the phone seller and wondering if losing all my contacts was just a spiritual ploy in helping me realize nothing is forever...except heaven and thankfully we won't need ladders, phones, email or even hard drives there...and the swoosh that gives life will last an eternity.

Have you ever had a JOB day, week, month or year in your life?

 Kathy is an author and speaker who inspires people to BYOB(BUILD YOUR OWN BLISS)
Her computer led a good life and will be missed by those who knew it!