Walking on the Same Road

Daisy the Cat was ticked off at me when we went to bed last night, and she was still angry when she kicked me awake at 5 AM.  Heavy rain was in the forecast.  The moon has just started to wane (never a very good time for me).  Then I discovered that my little refrigerator had gone into an auto-defrost cycle when I stepped in an unpleasantly cold puddle that stretched all the way across the kitchen floor.  And I could tell I had the beginnings of an ocular migraine.  All in all, not the most auspicious start for the day.

Grumbling and pouting would have seemed like an appropriate reaction.  But, in my heart, I know that they never are because this is when it's the right time to fight back.  Maybe my "fight backs" are different than other folks but that's okay.   My response to the day has been to fix my pretty pink chair.

Honestly, I have never been bothered by the fact that my yard-sale-find chair has a split clear across the seat.  It's an oddly comfy chair, and I am inclined to sit there happily for hours when I'm at my work table--certainly I did so yesterday while I was learning some very elementary book binding.  (No big thing really--just doing something special with the clock-setting booklets that I sell on eBay; I want my customers to have the best item I can provide.)  Anyway, I actually did not consider that the pink chair wanted fixing until my tenant had to sit on it the other day and she freaked out because she said it was gonna collapse.  Trust me, the chair was sturdy, just a little damaged--really not an issue.  Still, it was something to think about.

So this morning, when I was having trouble finding the bright center of the day, my eyes lit on the chair and I figured I'd give it the best I had. 

Now, a trip to Hooker's Hardware (once again, let me say that it is named after a Person and not the profession) is out of the question (no money, it's raining, my head hurts) so I would have to use whatever was on hand in my "goody box" of parts.

I found all sorts of good stuff in there (I nearly always do), including my green tape measure that has been missing since forever and some curtain rings that I didn't even know I had.  But I didn't have the right screws or the right mending plates.  Gotta get creative--it's metal strapping again.  Don't know where I got the roll of that stuff but it has been a God-send.  And I even found some Furniture Glides to put on the legs of the chair.

Furniture Glides and I have a bit of a history, you might say.  Bestafa invented them.  We weren't exactly related (he was my mother's younger sister's husband's father--family stuff can be so hazy) but he assured me that I should call him Bestafa (Norwegian for Grandpa).  We only met a few times when I was very small but I have the impression of someone kind and deeply caring.  I remember my mother proudly reminding me more than once of how he invented Furniture Glides for the Carfastener Corporation.  I still have a few of the originals attached to some piece of furniture or another in the house.  Anyway, Glides always bring a smile, and I think that would please Bestafa.  There's nothing better than being remembered with a smile.

So I cued up Arashi's Japonism DVD to listen to while I worked.  I plundered some leftover window blind parts packets for screws, broke off a few pieces of  strapping for mending plates, drilled some start holes, got glue filled in along the split, and generally got the first part of the repair process underway.  Then I had go outside to out to the car to get some bungees (I always keep bungees in the car, doesn't everyone?) to put the right stress on the seat.  Poor chair looks like it's playing the bungee version of Jenga, doesn't it?

 

 

 

Anyway, when I got back from the car (and I went outside in the rain without an umbrella mind you but, hey, I'm a Mississippian and we ain't afraid of no rain), there was Arashi on the screen singing "Bokura ga Tsunaideku."  That song has rescued me so many times.

The past that led to today is connected by an endless road
People in times and places that you don't know have been gently supporting you

Where will this road go?　Even if you ask the wind
There's no answer there

Our dreams were connected by many different paths
Someday they'll let off the light of hope
We can hear noise far in the distance
Feeling it, we'll walk to the future　We’re walking on the road
“We're being connected together”
On the same road

Me being alive now will connect to someone else's wish
I reflect on the coincidence that we met and what it means now

I've always been hearing a gentle lullaby
Words of life that won't ever vanish

The eras change and time passes
Even if we chase after a different tomorrow
We'll surely come back to this road again someday
We're always as one　We’re walking on the road
“We're being connected together”
On the wind

Our dreams were connected by many different paths
Someday they'll let off the light of hope
We can hear noise far in the distance
Feeling it, we'll walk to the future　We’re walking on the road

The eras change and time passes
Even if we chase after a different tomorrow
We'll surely come back to this road again someday
We're always as one　We’re walking on the road
“We're being connected together”
On the same road…*

 

So true:  we are connected to so many people in so very many ways.  It's good to remember.  It's good to make repairs.  It's even good to take a short walk in the rain on an October morning in Mississippi.

 

Life is good, too.

Never forget that.

And remember to fight back.....even if that means repairing a pink yard sale chair that has a broken seat.

 

 

*translation credit:  Yarukizero