Stahlke Adoption

Ups and Downs

Last week was very tough.

In addition to the regular December routine, our main sewer line backed up, our car radio was stolen, and mice proliferated in the house. Then two children came home on Wednesday with detention slips. All pretty depressing.

But I know from experience that one's mood doesn't stay low forever. The last few days have been much, much better. Lemons CAN turn to lemonade.

While thieves took the face plate of our car stereo, they must have been interrupted, because the body of the stereo showed signs of prying but was left in our car. Without the face plate, however, there was no way to remove the CD left in the player, which was one disc from an 18-CD book checked out from our local library.

Today our car mechanic was able to extract the CD, although with some difficulty. When I picked up the car, Pete gave me the key and told me there wouldn't be a charge. I knew he had spent a fair amount of time at the job, which included removing the stereo from our dashboard, so I told him we should pay him for his time. He smiled, said no, and told me, "You've reached your payment limit for the year."

It's not the first time that Pete has helped us out. You can read about the "tire" story starting in paragraph five of the following story:

http://www.lcms.org/pages/wPage.asp?ContentID=74&IssueID=11

With friends like this, how can one stay depressed?

posted by Stahlkes @ 5:31 PM