This has been a terrible winter in Indiana. It’s been cold and wet and winter has gone on and on. Every time I wanted to go outside it took me ten minutes just to find my scarf. I finally just started wearing it 24-7, even when I was in the house. It got a little warm sometimes, but it probably saved me a couple hours of scarf searching this winter.
The weather is breaking now, but we’re all behind in our spring yard work. The other day I was out working in the yard and I saw one of our great neighbors. I hadn’t seen him since November when we both were raking leaves. I went across the street to talk with him.
What I really wanted to do was tell him about all the problems I’ve had this winter: flu, colds. lost scarves. My wife declared our house a no-complain zone in early February and I had a lot of pent up complaining to do.
“It’s been a terrible winter,” I said when I reached my neighbor.
“Tell me about it,” he said. “I’ve had four colds. I had the flu three times. I’ve had pneumonia twice and I was in the hospital both times. And on top of all that I’ve had two surgeries since Christmas.”
I decided to keep quiet about my problems. I wasn’t even in this guy’s league. He totally out lousy-wintered me and made all my complaints look silly.
“You see,” my wife said. “It’s good to talk to other people and realize that your problems aren’t nearly as difficult as what they have to deal with.”
I guess that’s one way of looking at it. But as far as I’m concerned, not being able to complain about my problems to people is just one more thing to complain about!