Three in a Row

I am happy to announce that I have had three good weeks in a row.  It may not seem like much but, I have not had three straight weeks of mental stability in the last ten years or so.  I have been able to maintain a balance and not let events affect me the way they normally do.  I have realized that things will go wrong at times but, that I have a choice in how I handle them.  I normally have let mishaps throw me off for long periods of time and take mistakes far too personally.  Shit happens and I am learning to cope with that fact of life a little easier.

I will give you an example from last week.  I was doing the circle checks and my boss asked me to check the oil on our walk behind mower, the Ferris.  It had been burning too much oil so we had to keep an eye on it.  I took out the dip stick and their appeared to be a little piece of grass stuck to the end of it.  I was simply trying to wipe it off before I stuck the dip stick in to check the oil.  As my luck would have it,  I ended up snapping off the end of the dip stick.  I let out some profanities and walked over to show my boss the blunder I made.  He was wondering how I managed to break it but, was very kind in not making a big deal over it.  Now this little mishap would have thrown me off for an entire day in the past.  I would have stressed out over my stupidity and let me mind run rampant with negative thoughts about myself for the duration of the day.  In this case,  I too tried to shrug it off and ended up having an awesome day of cutting with Paul.

I want to ride this momentum as long as I can.  There is no reason I cannot continue this trend of a positive mental state.  I have been focused on controlling my thoughts and not letting them control me and my emotions.  I have not been thinking of jumping off bridges or driving a way on a cross country tour.  I have been thinking of the future and what possibilities the future may bring.  I like the way May is going and I want to continue the trend in to June.

I did my second independent job yesterday which was top dressing for my Uncle Jerry.  Uncle Jerry and Aunt Nancy as we call them have been family friends for a long time.  They are wonderful people and have had a great impact on my life.  I was able to work along side Jerry and finish the top dressing job in a reasonable time frame.  We ended up using three yards of top soil and had enough seed for the majority of the trouble spots.  I really hope the seed takes like I believe it should,  cannot wait to see how it is doing in a month or so.  If you ever top dress your lawn,  make sure you are watering it a lot.  Laying down soil and seed is a great way to repair lawns. However,  if you do not water it enough in warmer temperatures, then your efforts will simply not be rewarded.

I ended up making some good money for my efforts and took Jodi out to a movie last night.  We ended up seeing Pain and Gain which was not quite what I expected.  I did enjoy it though and was nice to finally get out of the house on a Saturday night.  I will cut the grass this morning and do some weeding in our beds.  Then will more than likely watch the Jays game with Matt.

Happy Sunday.  Take care,  Shawn.

If there is a problem,  look for a solution.