My face is healing where the cancer was removed, but if you look closely you can see a map of Nevada, or maybe its Florida.
Many have complimented the doctor’s work on my face (his specialty is breast reconstruction). When he finished removing the stitches he said, “You can walk out of here cancer free.” I replied, “Well – actually, there is no cure yet for my Multiple Myeloma.”
He looked quickly at the floor and muttered something quietly. I just should have just said thank you. I’m never sure, sometimes maybe I should keep my thoughts to myself.
Recently while in a hardware store, there was a young man having a very bad day. A clerk was trying to help him find something he needed – quickly. I saw him when I passed the end of his isle; I was looking at fire extinguishers in the next row.
I heard him say loud and clearly, “Everything that could possibly go wrong today has gone wrong!” I was tempted for just a moment to step around the corner and ask him if he has incurable cancer. “No? Then you do not realize what an absolutely wonderful day you are having.”
Should I have barged in with my unsolicited observation? Would it have been a welcome point of view not previously considered? Or would it be just one more annoyance in his near record bad day?
Doing the fire repair on my car has been like doing multiple, interconnected story problems associated with replacing fuel lines, vacuum lines, coil wires, starter wires, spark plug wires, distributor cap, and finally reconnecting the battery.
Before you touch cable to post you mentally add up the scores from all the story problems for a tally landing you somewhere on the scale of: instantly bursting into flames, wires glowing, plastic melting, or – cranking over and starting the engine.
Story Problem Example: a large red wire left the alternator heading west, to the starter solenoid. Midway along its journey it was joined by a medium gauge red wire that arrived at the starter at the same time. What was the origin of the second red wire, and to which of three terminals should it be connected?
Answer: take more pictures and make more diagrams before starting a project like this. I connected the battery, poured some gasoline in the carburetor and (with a fresh extinguisher standing by) hit the key. It started right up. That car sounds good, and it was nice to hear it running again.