Almost Perfect

So this past weekend was amazing. It was full of stuff, and 99% of it was great fun and relaxation. I worked early Saturday AM as usual, and my friend Barry met me at my house at 11:30. We went to a "secret" pond to go fishing near Harvey's Lake and boy oh boy, let me tell you, our target fish was bluegill/perch/calico and we got 10 keepers in the first hour. When I say "keepers", I mean BIG ones. Lunkers if you will.

I mean, if you could lip a bluegill, you KNOW it's a big`un. So we put 10 on the stringer, and that was going to be my dinner Saturday night.
Someone else met us up there around 2 that afternoon and he decided he was going to put some corn on his hook and let it sit on the bottom. Within 25 minutes, he hears his drag clicking, so he grabs his pole and he's in for the fight of his life. I'd say it took about 20 minutes worth of fighting for what he pulled in, luckily I had my HUGE net with me. He was so thrilled.....a carp that's at least 30 pounds. Also, luckily, I had my cell phone with me and it takes great pictures.
That was Saturday.


Yesterday on the other hand went even better. And I didn't even go fishing.

I awoke early on my own at around 8, and my wife and I met up with a friend for breakfast. After breakfast, we went back to my house (all 3 of us), and I volunteered to do the weekly grocery shopping at Wegman's. What was I thinking?!?! It went OK, but I think there should be a class to teach people how to drive the shopping carts as well as their cars. :) My wife is house sitting for our Aunt this week, so it's up to me to do those kinds of things.
Got back to the house, put all the groceries away, and John and I decided to go for a walk on part of the new walkway in Dallas. So we drove down to Carverton Road, found a place park, and up the steps we went towards Luzerne. Let me tell you......it....was....beautiful! The weather was perfect, the path to walk on was perfect, the view of the town, the woods, the mountain...everything was beautiful. We even walked to an area on a bridge that went over Toby's Creek, and the waterfall was....yep...beautiful. The camera-phone picture doesn't do the view justice.
I 'googled' the route after we got home, and it looks like we walked around 4.6 miles. Not too shabby.

Now the sun was out, it was a nice afternoon, so I decided to cut the grass. John, being the wonderful friend that he is, volunteered to help. He grabbed the push mower, and I jumped on the riding tractor. We had the whole yard done in about an hour. Rock on!!!! This day is going wonderfully!!!

It's time for dinner. We're both starving, so I cooked up some potatoes in a pan with onion and butter, and grilled 4 honkin' pieces of lamb on the grill with a bit of salt and pepper. Dinner was delicious!!!! And fulfilling!
After dinner, both John and I were still full of energy, so we decided to grab all the excess cardboard around the barn and burn it...yes, in a fire pit. While the cardboard was burning, we were commenting on how GREAT of day it was. I suggested the perfect way to wrap up the day. Jump on the motorcycle, and take a nice casual ride around Harvey's Lake. John was up for it, so in the house we went to gear up.
I was putting my boots on when John went into my dining room to get the riding jackets. That's when I heard his voice yell, "Tom.....there's something not right in here!!! Get in here!!!" I went running into my dining room, and it was RAINING. Water was pouring out of the ceiling. In a nutshell, the pipe behind the upstairs toliet corroded and snapped, spewing water directly through the wall into the ceiling and pouring out. My dining room ceiling is ruined. Luckily, Scott, from the day before, is a plumber, and he came right over and fixed the pipe so I could at least use my shower. I called my wife and told her, "Honey, you are NEVER going to leave me home alone again", and proceded to tell her what happened. She was on the phone with the insurance company, and as I type this Monday morning, the water clean-up crew is at the house, well, cleaning up the water. Hopefully my house will be back to normal by the end of the week, but if not, oh well. I took Thursday and Friday vacation days, so I may be cleaning then. :) We'll see.
I firmly believe one of two things from this past weekend. Either:
1) God KNEW the pipe was going to break, so he allowed me to have 1.8 great days so I could mentally/emotionally handle this water explosion or
2) God saw I was TOO happy. I was floating too much on a pink cloud, and in order to keep me balanced and knock me down a notch....blew up the pipe.
Luckily we were home when the pipe broke and it's minimal damage. Luckily I understand there's not much I can do about this, so why worry. I'm OK with the whole thing.
Dealing with all the Politicians and their Political radio commercials on the other hand........my pipes can blow up twice a year and it's less stressful. Thank goodness tomorrow is election day and I won't have to hear how DemocratXXXX said this, and RepublicanXXXX did that, and Blankety blank believes this so don't vote for him will be over.
Moral of the story: Bad things MUST happen to us, to teach us how to appreciate the good things, and to be grateful!