Mess Ups - YIKES!
It was one of those “Yikes! Oh no!” moments… where you wish you could just take back the last few seconds and everything would be the way it was. If you could snatch back the last minute then everything would be alright. However the deadening realization that it will not happen and the fact that issue is non reversible sinks in with a thud. Full stop and it is over. Only a faint glimmer of the original condition is there.
Have you ever had that happen? It has happened for Alida and me a few times lately – and it about drives us nuts. Why now? Why us? Why not some one else?
Her Problem…
She… had a small crunch of our car door while helping our grandson deliver papers. The passenger side door was open after our grandson took the newspaper up the driveway to the home. It was beginning to rain and Clifford was getting wetter by the minute. Alida decided to put the vehicle in reverse and move back slowly to make it easier for Clifford to get in the vehicle. As the vehicle moved slowly backwards about 4 inches – the door caught a pile of ice and stopped dead – however the vehicle continued to move backwards. In the small moment it took to move her foot to the brake the door popped and ripped the two hinges away from the car body – just enough that the door would not close. It was now at a right angle to the car body. The outside panel of the door was ugly and bent and the right front fender was twisted in an odd way. “Yikes! Oh no!”
I wasn’t home when this happened – but far away in Saskatchewan. That is not good.
The first thought we both had was “Kaching!” – a familiar cartoon way of saying money would be needed to fix this little fender bender. In our conversation I heard her deep sadness and when she said, “I feel so stupid…” I understood.
The “Kaching” proved to be “KACHING!”. Did you now that the hinges on an 11 year old van are $76 for the top hinge and $112 for the bottom one – even though they are identical? But at the auto wrecker/salvage yard they are $10 each…okay that is a little “kaching”… the kind we can handle.
His Problem…
Last night while I was attempting to do a routine update on an electronic piece of equipment I had another “Yikes! Oh no!” moment. So stupid – so stupid! I hooked everything to the computer to download a file to an electronic unit – to up date it. I had done this a number of times before and it was a simple, straight forward operation. Connect, find the file, click once and then away the operation goes on its own. As I watched and waited – suddenly the screen of the computer went into the “blue mode – screen of death”… a shut down of the computer was in rapid progress. The file that was vital to the health of the electronic unit was suddenly halted at a really bad place in the sequence – a place that the instructions clearly said “Do Not Turn off the equipment/unit or the computer when uploading the file!”
I didn’t turn it off – the machine did it – all on its own.
You guessed it – when the unit was turned back on there was only a feeble blinking of four small lights that were cycling over and over again – crying “help me – help me”. Nothing that I tried would revive the unit – it appears dead. Mouth to mouth doesn’t work on dead machines! “KACHING!” “Why me? Why now? Why us? Why not some one else?”
At 11:30 PM it was time to go to bed and stop grinding my teeth. The stupid computer had done its stuff at 8:00 PM and it was all over. I pronounced it dead at 11:29 PM.
Mess ups happen. ‘Yikes’ is a word that I have learned along the way and you can’t do anything about it. Almost everything is fixable – almost. But in some cases it isn’t and you move on.
Recently while speaking to another friend I heard how their lives were changed in a heart beat with an announcement from some one that stopped them dead. They were never the same again. I heard another account where the personal announcement by a marriage partner, about what he had done, began the destruction of the whole family. In both cases it will be a big “KACHING” for the all those involved.
We are all the same. Stuff happens and stuff hurts at times. What we do with stuff is important when it happens. Fixating on dumb cars or dumb computers will not bring back that last actions and reverse the bad things. But what is so important is how I live past the spot and get on with life.
It is in this simple moment that I realize that there is a God that cares. Is He my crutch? No – not a crutch but maybe my stretcher and by whole support when I most need Him. He is my 911 when my life is crumbling and the situation is not so good.
Today as I sit here pecking out the words to this short account the Sun has risen moments ago. Life is going on now and will do so for all of today. The birds have begun their ‘today’s song’ – they are ready to face another day. So am I.
Why now? Why us? Why not some one else? These simple questions are answered by Why not now? Why not us? And Why should it be someone else? It’s a new day… Yikes turns to Yes in a heart beat. Let’s get on with it.
~ Pastor Murray Lincoln ~
Have you ever had that happen? It has happened for Alida and me a few times lately – and it about drives us nuts. Why now? Why us? Why not some one else?
Her Problem…
She… had a small crunch of our car door while helping our grandson deliver papers. The passenger side door was open after our grandson took the newspaper up the driveway to the home. It was beginning to rain and Clifford was getting wetter by the minute. Alida decided to put the vehicle in reverse and move back slowly to make it easier for Clifford to get in the vehicle. As the vehicle moved slowly backwards about 4 inches – the door caught a pile of ice and stopped dead – however the vehicle continued to move backwards. In the small moment it took to move her foot to the brake the door popped and ripped the two hinges away from the car body – just enough that the door would not close. It was now at a right angle to the car body. The outside panel of the door was ugly and bent and the right front fender was twisted in an odd way. “Yikes! Oh no!”
I wasn’t home when this happened – but far away in Saskatchewan. That is not good.
The first thought we both had was “Kaching!” – a familiar cartoon way of saying money would be needed to fix this little fender bender. In our conversation I heard her deep sadness and when she said, “I feel so stupid…” I understood.
The “Kaching” proved to be “KACHING!”. Did you now that the hinges on an 11 year old van are $76 for the top hinge and $112 for the bottom one – even though they are identical? But at the auto wrecker/salvage yard they are $10 each…okay that is a little “kaching”… the kind we can handle.
His Problem…
Last night while I was attempting to do a routine update on an electronic piece of equipment I had another “Yikes! Oh no!” moment. So stupid – so stupid! I hooked everything to the computer to download a file to an electronic unit – to up date it. I had done this a number of times before and it was a simple, straight forward operation. Connect, find the file, click once and then away the operation goes on its own. As I watched and waited – suddenly the screen of the computer went into the “blue mode – screen of death”… a shut down of the computer was in rapid progress. The file that was vital to the health of the electronic unit was suddenly halted at a really bad place in the sequence – a place that the instructions clearly said “Do Not Turn off the equipment/unit or the computer when uploading the file!”
I didn’t turn it off – the machine did it – all on its own.
You guessed it – when the unit was turned back on there was only a feeble blinking of four small lights that were cycling over and over again – crying “help me – help me”. Nothing that I tried would revive the unit – it appears dead. Mouth to mouth doesn’t work on dead machines! “KACHING!” “Why me? Why now? Why us? Why not some one else?”
At 11:30 PM it was time to go to bed and stop grinding my teeth. The stupid computer had done its stuff at 8:00 PM and it was all over. I pronounced it dead at 11:29 PM.
Mess ups happen. ‘Yikes’ is a word that I have learned along the way and you can’t do anything about it. Almost everything is fixable – almost. But in some cases it isn’t and you move on.
Recently while speaking to another friend I heard how their lives were changed in a heart beat with an announcement from some one that stopped them dead. They were never the same again. I heard another account where the personal announcement by a marriage partner, about what he had done, began the destruction of the whole family. In both cases it will be a big “KACHING” for the all those involved.
We are all the same. Stuff happens and stuff hurts at times. What we do with stuff is important when it happens. Fixating on dumb cars or dumb computers will not bring back that last actions and reverse the bad things. But what is so important is how I live past the spot and get on with life.
It is in this simple moment that I realize that there is a God that cares. Is He my crutch? No – not a crutch but maybe my stretcher and by whole support when I most need Him. He is my 911 when my life is crumbling and the situation is not so good.
Today as I sit here pecking out the words to this short account the Sun has risen moments ago. Life is going on now and will do so for all of today. The birds have begun their ‘today’s song’ – they are ready to face another day. So am I.
Why now? Why us? Why not some one else? These simple questions are answered by Why not now? Why not us? And Why should it be someone else? It’s a new day… Yikes turns to Yes in a heart beat. Let’s get on with it.
~ Pastor Murray Lincoln ~
posted by Murray Lincoln at
Thursday, May 03, 2007
1 Comments:
All of these "yikes" moments can cause us to trip as we walk along through life. But, we need to get back up, brush ourselves off and have faith enough to keep walking along this road of life. Sounds easy, definintely NOT. The choice is ours in how we react. We can be bitter or we can be better because of them. I want to better and I can see that you do too.
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Anonymous, at 9:52 AM
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