The Best Laid Plans

It’s been an interesting week.  I had cataract #1 removed last Monday and I confess: all of you who told me it would be a “walk in the park” were right. It was just that!  So I’m really thankful for your prayers. I go in tomorrow for the other eye, so you can keep praying, please!  

In other news, our kids have been remodelling their house.  Since we live nearby, we suggested that they move into our place. We were planning to do some traveling anyway, so they could have full run of the place.  I think they enjoyed themselves. 

When we got home, work was still going on, so we got an Airbnb nearby.  Easier to shift two people than a family of five. After ten days of that, however, we all agreed that it was time to come home. This made for four adults, three kids, a dog and a bird, but we all squeezed up a bit and survived nicely. 

By yesterday, work on their house was still not finished, and while we protested meekly, they decided to go back home and squeeze around the construction site for the few days that are left until completion. 

I must say, It’s really been a LOVELY experience.   

I think it’s fun because we have EVERY level of maturity and living skills in the same room. From a small child, to teens and us geriatrics, it’s very nostalgic.  Let me say the parents are amazing, the kids are adorable, but life happens.

Yesterday the youngest (all boys, just to make it interesting) did NOT get an Amazon order he’d connived his dad into ordering the night before.  Oh, it came as expected,  but it was the far inferior option, not at all what he’d ordered.  Some of you can remember the cereal box helicopters or the boat that was propelled with baking soda. These experiences taught us how to deal with disappointment, eh?

Enter the stark reality that you can’t just ‘call up’ Amazon (his suggestion) and tell them this gross error is going to factor into his enjoyment of……..well…….TODAY!  

How do you explain that Amazon probably is a robot and doesn’t care that ‘It’ has ruined his day?  

Anyway, it got me to thinking, and while I was dealing with it, Tony called to relay to me what he’d just heard on the news.

A couple of years ago, in our search for downsizing options, we stumbled across a massive new apartment complex that was being built near us.  We went for a visit and looked at their beyond glamorous ‘model units’. 

The siren songs cranked up, and we were right on the verge of signing on the dotted line when reality (call it sanity) clicked in.  

“We’re just about sold out,” said the loquacious salesman. “People are pounding on my door for these choice apartments.” Suddenly jumping to her feet, she said, “Just a moment; I have to change an appointment.” Then she rushed out the door, leaving us with a golden opportunity to talk with each other and decide to take the sale.  

But instead, on a hunch, I reached over her desk surreptitiously and flipped her planner open. Her “Very full schedule” she warned us of was completely BLANK.

After a few minutes, she swooped back in and found us standing. 

“Thank you,” we stammered, “but we’ve decided to table this for the moment and hava think” (as the Aussies say).  In the weeks to come, I guess she called roughly 45 times, before finally getting the hint.

The units were finally all built and sold.  When the people all moved in, we drove by at night and realised the gorgeous floor-to-ceiling glass windows had become a 10-storey peep show in the dark.  We saw curtains and barriers going up.  But we were okay with our decision to let it go, since by then we’d done the math and realised that even if we had sold our house, we couldn’t get ourselves into a 3 bedroom unit, much less afford the monthly “body corps” (HOA) for eternity.

And then came the death nell news blurb this morning.  

Apparently, all the great amenities that had been promised, such as a beautiful shopping centre, doctors’ offices and lakeside park hit some sort of snag and cannot EVER be built (Probably the presence of Newts or March flies or some such, who knows). 

I wonder if the happy owners can get their hopes and dreams and money back?

Oh, I’m guessing they have about as much hope as a 9-yr old dissatisfied Amazon customer.

God says a lot of interesting things in the Bible, One of them is my daughter’s life verse and should be ours as well, “I know the plans I have for you, not to destroy you but to prosper you” (Jeremiah 39:11).

If we’d have moved there, how could we have room to spare for (temporarily) homeless offspring and all the joy they’re bringing us!?!

Life sure is a journey, don’t you agree?

Love ya,

Marsha