So you guys, I am stressed out about a bunch of small-potatoes stuff at the moment and I can't shake it off. I am going to tell you about it instead, and maybe you will be able to help me figure it out or at least commiserate.
Back in the winter my sister-in-law told me to put June 26 on my calendar because there was going to be an 80th birthday party for my FIL. No problem! We had nothing, literally zero things, on our summer calendar.
Except-- in April I put a thing on my summer calendar. A triathlon, in a small town almost 3 hours away from my in-laws' house. In an entire summer full of Saturdays, it was scheduled for the same Saturday as the birthday party. (Is anyone else finding that your calendar management skills are just not the same post-COVID? I imagine my lost calendar skills lying around here somewhere, buried in a heap of 2020 detritus.)
Anyway, whoops, bad planning. But probably salvageable, right? Early morning sprint triathlon, mid-morning lightning-fast shower, midday drive to the in-laws' house in time for an afternoon gathering. Busy but doable.
Except-- the afternoon gathering scooted back a little earlier, and the triathlon scooted forward. This race has a 7:00 start time, but I am not scheduled to get into the water until almost 9:30.
And also-- the current forecast for Saturday is "strong morning thunderstorms." Or that's what Accuweather says, at any rate. Weather.com is calling for scattered thunderstorms. Does this mean (more) delay? Cancellation? Who can say?
In other circumstances I might just bail on the triathlon, but one of my good friends is driving some distance to do it with me. I don't want to bail on her.
I have often thought that weather offers an excellent opportunity to cultivate an eternal perspective. It is the epitome of a short-term frustration: no matter how annoying it may be in the moment, it is guaranteed to be a temporary flavor of annoying. No matter how much you fret about it, you change nothing. Unpleasant weather forecasts, then, offer us a chance to grow in tranquillity.
OH PAST SELF, you can be awfully idealistic sometimes.
I guess my magic-wand outcome is that (a) the foster dog gets adopted quickly so we don't have to worry about transferring him to a different foster home over the weekend, (b) my friend and her husband come down for a pleasant chatty dinner on Friday night, (c) the weather forecast shows a clear belt of storms moving toward Triathlon Town when we wake up early on Saturday morning, so (d) they cancel the tri and give us vouchers for next year's race and (e) we go out for pancakes instead. And then (f) we can leave in plenty of time for the birthday party once the storms have passed through.
Alas, I do not have a very effective magic wand -- more like a Wishful Thinking Stick. Is there a patron saint of weather? Probably there are only patron saints of "don't worry about the weather! cultivate an eternal perspective instead!"
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