"He Who Gives Up A Little Happiness for a Little Security"

So, last night, I had the luxury of pitching the tent, which was good, as I was in the car rather than the van. As I looked up through the mesh at the stars above, I pondered ol' Ben Franklin's words. While they usually get applied to government, it makes a pretty decent life philosophy as well.

You don't have to look hard to find stories of people who have given 20, 30, 40 years to a company only to walk in one day and have the boss tell them they're on the unemployment rolls. Or that their pension has been stolen due to mismanagement. Or health care force them out of a job. The sad thing is, a lot of these folks sacrificed the happiness of doing what they want for the illusion of security that a regular workforce job provides.

I kinda had to remind myself of that this afternoon, when an awful, repeated thumping came from the driver's rear corner of the car. We'd had some wobbling for a bit, but couldn't source it. As I got out of the car and checked, I initially saw nothing, but decided to drive on to the next town, about 6 miles away. A mile in, though, the road widened because of a cutoff point where they had started building a 4 lane highway. This gave me a 30 to 40 foot cushion from the road. I decided not to risk finishing the drive into town and change it there.

As soon as I put the donut spare on and finger tightened the bolts, though, the jack slipped. Fortunately, no harm no foul, but a tad bit scary. So I made the ride on the donut, aware that there was no way I was making the 220 mile drive to today's next assignment.

On the interminably long drive in (slowed enough by the donut, I had to follow a road maintenance crew at 10-20 MPH for over 10 miles. No bueno, and thank goodness the Clash CD was in!), I got a bright idea and rescheduled tomorrow's assignment, which was about 45 miles away, for today, and have several evening hours to make the run closer to tomorrow's assignment. The downside, of course, is no morning at the lake tomorrow, but I have the sneaking suspicion that somehow I'll handle it!

So, to sum up, things to be grateful for today:

1. Actual, not merely perceived, freedom
2. That the tire tread didn't separate while we were travelling out and my daughter was driving
3. The reschedule that saved me a few miles on gas, and made up for at least a portion of the tire, which eventually would have needed to be replaced anyway.

This also means I get back to Okemah earlier tomorrow! Definite win!