Floods

We had some remodeling done at the house last week. I didn’t do any of the work myself, because those are not skills I possess, nor do I care to learn. Yes, I’ll do basic jobs around the house now and then, but it’s not something I particularly look forward to or enjoy. I’m not completely useless…just mostly useless.

I’ve heard it said that it’s important to know who you are, but it’s also important to know who you’re not. I’m definitely not the guy you want working on your car or renovating your kitchen. Now, my dad is a brilliant mechanic and taught high school auto for 40 years. Over the years, I spent a lot of time with him at the shop changing oil, replacing brake pads and rotors, and completing other basic jobs, but it’s not something that has stuck with me or that I’ve felt compelled to carry on into my adult life. I’ve always given my dad credit for letting me be my own person with my own interests. During my senior year of high school, I really wanted to take my dad’s auto class, but it required a three hour block of time in the morning that interfered with my school’s only offerings of calculus and physics. My dad understood that those classes were going to be part of both my academic and working life going forward, and he encouraged me to stick with them even though it meant not being able to take his class. I always thought that was a pretty cool move, and it was another example of the unselfish nature of my father.

Anyways, the house looks great and we’re really happy with everything, but in the days immediately following the completion of the project, we had two floods in our house, the result of appliances not being reconnected correctly by the contractors.

Last Friday, I was down in the basement working through my warm-up squat sets when I began to hear water running into the furnace room. I ran back there and, sure enough, water was running through the ceiling and down the walls. When I got upstairs, I discovered a soaked kitchen floor with water pouring out of the dishwasher. It turns out the contractors had not replaced the drain hose which dumped water everywhere.

Fast forward to Sunday morning. Again, I was down in the basement warming up some squats when I heard water pouring into the other half of the basement. I ran over and came upon waterfalls coming out of the light fixtures in the ceiling. Perhaps the universe just really didn’t want me to get my squats in this past week (Spoiler Alert: I always get my squats in). A flooded laundry room and cursory inspection revealed that the drain hose on the washer had not been reconnected by the contractors.

Is this bad?

After cleaning up, making trips to Home Depot to rent some carpet blowers, and hosting extra repair and clean-up visits from the contractors, everything seems like it’s squared away and back to normal.

None of this was fun or convenient, but Cali and I tried to look at the bigger picture here. These are first-world problems. Overall, the company did a great job. They just missed some details on a few small things that ended up being costly in terms of time and money. Nobody got hurt or killed. There are greater tragedies in life. Mistakes happen, etc. and so forth.

I have been trying to be more mindful about how I react to things that happen in life, recognizing that many situations are completely out of my control. This includes everyday occurrences and inconveniences and even the things others say and do that I may not like. I can only control how I react to an event and take responsibility for how I let it affect my mood and my outlook on the situation. Mark Manson’s book, “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck” does a masterful job of explaining the importance of maintaining this approach to life. In my opinion, the title of this book is a bit misleading, because it implies that the book is going to tell the reader to just not care about anything. Really, the book is about carefully picking what you care about and managing the impact you allow it to have on you. If everyone tried to maintain this perspective, there would probably be a whole lot less people getting offended about every little perceived slight that is a part of living in the world. Imagine if all the energy spent on being offended was put into something productive like improving oneself or making the world a better place. Boy, we’d really be kicking ass as a human race.