“The more I learn about people, the more I like my dog.” – Mark Twain
“When things go wrong, don’t go with them. ” Elvis Presley
I am still kvetching. I got the new washer. Then I had to replace a well pump at my first rental. I cannot complain about the longevity of the pump (just the price!), but the washer?
What happened to the days that major appliances lasted more than five years? What happened to pride in what you produce?
Thursday morning I was arguing with my second rental tenant via text. “Yes, you owe me at least four month’s rent. I need a check!” Twenty minutes later I get a phone call from a woman asking me to give him a credit reference! Amazing. Reality check. Why would you list someone you owe money to as a credit reference?
This morning I was rushing out to the van. I threw my iPad Mini into my rolling crate. Later when I looked for it at the office, it was nowhere to be found. I am sick about this. There were photos and a lot of apps on that machine. The dispatcher at the transportation company could not have cared less. Would it have killed him to FAKE some sympathy? What happened to customer service?
As much as I generally love and praise people, there are some times I dislike them quite a bit. Quite a bit. Have a series of less than happy encounters and you can be rolling downhill on a slippery slope.
I have talked about the DBT concept of turning the mind a little bit but not in-depth. Turning the mind is a distress tolerance skill. It involves making the conscious choice to turn towards acceptance of a bad situation (acceptance being the first step towards change) or simply to turn towards positive functioning. A 2006 study found that approximately 40% of happiness may be determined by intentionally engaging in positive thoughts and activities. A statistic like that makes taking the happy path look pretty appealing. Even when you are not feeling it.
Realizing I was in a foul mood – and there being fresh snow! This weather is so flippin’ weird – I put on my cross-country skis and tried to ski. Very wet snow so I was sticking badly. A couple of times I had ‘platform skis’ with three inches of snow stuck to the bottom! Back to the house for the silicon spray and a second attempt.
This is another aspect of turning the mind: it doesn’t just happen once. Every time you come to a decision point, somewhere you could spiral down or turn towards acceptance and the more positive adjustment, you have to choose all over again. Again and again and again. Health is a choice we have to keep making over and over again.
So I accepted the snow was very wet and I needed silicon spray. Lots of spray and a few passes along the same path and I was doing my version of zipping along. No spray and no trail breaking? That would be not accepting reality and no zipping along. Zippy is good. Trying to move on ‘platform skis’ is not.
My tablet? I haven’t totally given up. I am going to talk to the drivers but I ordered a new one. The reality is mine is nowhere to be found. Not accepting that means no apps that I need to help me out. Accepting it may be gone allows me to try to solve the problem.
People? Oh, might as well accept it. Lots of them are idiots. Didn’t you know? ?
P.S. You can set up your iPad so it can send you an SOS when it is lost or stolen. It is in the systems menu. I will do that with the new one! [Lin/Linda here: you do have to set this up BEFORE you loose your iPhone or iPad. Click here for those instructions and also how to use the Find My iPhone app. You can do something similar with Android devices, click here for more information.]