Life is awesome all the time

Mark Rice

Member
Messages
99
Location
Red Feather Lakes, CO
It was a beautiful day. It was the first really warm day of the year. It was about 65 with a nice breeze. I was working in the shop on the bench/cabinet for the table saw and router table, had the boom box turned up enough to drown out the noise from the shop vac the wife was using to clean her car with. The dog was sleeping right outside the door of the shop, like he usually does when I am in the shop.
We live in the hills and don't see much in the way of cars on our road. We only have three families that live full time in our little area of about 150 acres. We have about the same size lot that everyone else does, about 4.5 acres. The rest of the acreage are 4.5 acre building sights that people have bought but haven't built on. We can hardly see our closest neighbor's house.
They are an older couple, in their 80s. They are simple folk and their eyes still sparkle at the joys of life. When they smile you can tell they really like smiling and laughing. They feel the joy in their souls. Neither one of them would have any concept of an automatic smile. What you see on their faces is what they really feel. They like simple things and have simple ideas. There is no gray area in what they believe. A thing is either right or wrong and they don't approve of people that do wrong things. They won't say so verbally but you can see it in their faces. They appreciate simple things like a full fridge and a well stocked wood shed.
While the wife and I were doing what we were doing we noticed a local volunteer fire department rescue truck go by. A few seconds later an ambulance went by. Both of the other families that live on road have members that have some serious health issues so we were both more than a little concerned. I told the wife that I was going to see who needed the ambulance and what help they needed. I got the ATV out of the garage and headed up the road. I topped the hill and could see the ambulance and the rescue truck parked in the driveway of our closest neighbors. My heart skipped a beat and I began to worry. I parked the ATV out of the way of the drive and walked towards the door to the house. I saw Chuck standing in the doorway of the house and headed towards him. I asked him if he needed any help with anything and is there anything me or the wife could do for them. Come to find out, she had a nose bleed and it wouldn't stop. She is on a blood thinner because she has a pace maker. He was going to make some phone calls and then head to the hospital. He said he would call us later and give us an update and thanked me for checking up on them.
Later that night we walked up the road. It was just Turning dark when we saw their truck coming up the road. As they got closer we could see that there were two people in the truck and we both expressed relief that she was coming home that soon. As they got up to us they stopped. The outcome was they cauterized the inside of her nose with a soldering iron. I said, "Hell, I could have done that and saved you the trip into town." That got a good laugh from her, which is good to see. She has a smile that makes a person feel real good to be around her.
I just read Allen Levine's post about what he is going through and how much my neighbor's used to suck before we moved. I literally had to move before I wound up in jail dealing with an issue from one of my neighbors.
We are so blessed and I don't want to take that for granted. I love life. I love waking up and breathing and sitting on the deck with a cup of coffee. I love sitting with my wife every morning and just talking. What a great way to start the day. I love looking out the kitchen window and seeing elk, deer, moose or chipmunks. I love watching my dog running up the road and bouncing around like a pup. I love breaking the winch trying to load logs up on the trailer. I love when something goes wrong so that I can realize how good things are when they go right. That is what make the bad days so good, so they can make the good days even better. I hope I never take them for granted.
Don't get me wrong. Everything is not perfect. We might have to drill a new well. That will cost about 20,000. I noticed a cut in the sidewall of a tire on my truck. That is going to cost. The pellet stove went out two weeks ago. That ate up the whole remodel budget for the basement bathroom. We need to replace all four of the door knobs and dead bolts in the house. We had to fix two roof leaks this winter. The ATV broke down. It needed a whole new ignition system. We don't use it for a toy. We use it to pull logs off the side of the mountain so we can block and split them for firewood.
All in all tho, we are in pretty good health, are still in love with each other after all these years, have good people around us and life is pretty damn good.
I guess there isn't much of a point to this and it is just a little wordy bug I am just counting my blessings while I can.
Life is pretty freaking awesome, even when it sucks.
 
Here Darren, we can borrow this one...

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Great post, Mark. Sounds like you guys have your own little slice of Heaven there. Glad to see the neighbor lady is back home.
 
I can totally relate to that Mark as we have similr acarge over on Salt Spring Island with good neighbors and a life style very similar. Deer and thousands of singing frogs near the big pond. I live here in Victoria at present due to the kids but they have recently graduated and left the house now so we are sitting here in a 3 bedroom house that is too big for us and plan to be moving back to the island in the next few years. Of course we don't have high speed internet there yet and cell phones don't work unless you are standing on one leg on the back corner of the deck but then again who needs to be in constant contact with the world. I wasn't for a good part of my life and I suvived. Yea 50 this year ( july ) and looking at how lucky I am and at what is important to me. 25-30 yrs left and what do i want to do with that time?
 
Reading that was a great way to start the morning. Thanks for posting that, Mark. I agree with everything you said. We only have 2 acres, but that's exactly how I feel. I love to sit outside and *not* see my neighbors for the first time in my life. Yet I know they're there if I need them. Always take pleasure in the little things and try to find something to laugh about every day. :thumb: It's the only way.
 
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