Tomorrow Is Another Day
This week I hardly made it to write this story. In fact I am writing it on Friday night and it has to be published on my blog tomorrow morning. I had another story in mind to write today. It was about my experiences of Christmas through the years. But since I have to think quite a lot and it will surely take more than just two or three hours which I have available to write this week’s story, I decided to narrate to you this week’s experience which caused this delay to happen. Mind you, I do not wish to narrate just the happenings which took place but I wish to express the feelings behind them because this is what makes the story interesting and not just the facts. Before I begin I wish to tell you that usually I write the week’s story starting on Monday night and I will continue in the following days, always late in the evening. Most often my stories will be done by Wednesday and sometimes by Thursday. This week it was different because of several circumstances.
It all began last Sunday evening when my son Daniel came to visit us. He told me that he needed a favor from me. Of course I am always too pleased to be able to help any of my children. He wanted me to make some props for a show which the Zoo Company was commissioned to do. It was not one of their regular shows but it was a national show extended over three days in which several local talents were to take part as part of the Christmas celebrations. Till two years ago I always made all the props for the Zoo shows but as I am getting old I had told them to find someone else as I always ended up tired and exhausted. The reason for this decision was because they always decide on the props in the last week before their first performance of a show and many times I had to work long hours every day to do all the work and finish it on time. Daniel told me that this show was not in their plans but since the organizers wished to have them on the show they could not refuse. The person who has been doing their props since I stopped was not available because he had other urgent things to do so Daniel asked me. The first thing I asked him was when he wanted all these things ready. His exact words were, “By Friday of next week.” So I thought that I had almost two whole weeks to do the work and I could work at a relaxed pace. I accepted and he told me that I would be paid well for my work. This was very encouraging to me because at this time of the year, everybody has a lot of expenses.
First thing in the morning on Monday, I went to buy all the necessary material. As this work involved also some welding I asked my other son the mechanic if I could work in his garage. He accepted gladly and I took all the material in a corner at the back of his garage. I started to plan all my work. The main item I had to do was Santa’s sledge. This had to be big and strong enough to be used by a big fat man who here on the island is known as Santa Clause. Of course the sledge had to run on wheels instead of sliding on snow. Late in the afternoon Daniel phoned to see if I had started to do the work. My surprise was that he mentioned that the first performance was to take place next Friday. “But you told me Friday of next week!!!” I exclaimed. It was useless to argue because he said that he always meant the coming Friday not the one after. I guess it was a misunderstanding and since I had already bought the material I had to do my best to finish all the work in four days because on Friday morning they were coming over to collect it as the first performance was on Friday evening. The first day (Monday) was almost gone so I had only three days left.
On Tuesday I designed the sledge and did all the wood work it required. Then I had to make a sort of iron carriage to put the sledge on. I cut the iron and welded all the pieces together and fixed four small but heavy duty wheels. I returned home at eight in the evening. I was tired and retired early but during the night something happened. I had this terrible burning pain in my eyes. I could not even open them. I realized that this was caused be the welding. It was ages since I had welded. I used a mask but I must have forgotten to be careful not to let the smoke or fumes, caused by the welding, to get into my eyes. At first I really panicked but a long time ago I had a similar experience but in a day or so my eyes were back to normal. I hardly slept but when I woke up in the morning, I felt better although my eyes were red and still hurt a little. Then, off I went to work. I spent all the morning making some other things which Daniel told me, among which I had to make a snowman which I did from a lot of old newspapers and I had a large sheet of plywood on which I painted a Big Christmas card. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon painting or rather spraying the sledge and the snowman. I had to apply several layers of undercoat paint so to do a good job.
I returned home after 9.00pm. I was dead tired and soon I was in bed. Of course writing this week’s story was out of the question in the past three days because I was too exhausted. That night I did not sleep well because on my mind I had this worry that I won’t be able to write a story in my blog and I know from the ‘stats’ feature in the dashboard of my blog that my usual readers which add up to a few hundreds, would be disappointed. Besides, I still had plenty of work to do and I was afraid that I would not finish all the work on time………..I only had one day left.
Yesterday , I went to my son’s garage early in the morning. I still felt the fatigue of the past three days and the effect of not having slept a good night’s sleep. I really worked hard all day long finishing all items and giving my work the final touches. Believe me this is the most stressing time for me because I am not easily satisfied and I keep touching here and there till I am 100% happy about my work. When I reached that stage, I asked my son to check my work and tell me if in his opinion everything is as it should be. He did give me some suggestions, some of which I did not agree with and I left things as they were but I did arrange a couple of things he suggested.
My son, other than being very technical is also a very good craftsman so I always value his opinion. Besides, I couldn’t help noticing in these four days I spent with him how hard he works. It happened that these past four days he had two night shifts and two off days from his main work as an engineer at our power station. After a night’s work at the power station he would keep on working in his garage repairing people’s cars all day long. His customers really respect him and his friendly attitude with everyone, makes me very proud of him. Moreover, I saw the difference between him and me. The almost 30 year gap between our ages, is that obvious. He is strong and it seems that he never gets tired. I remembered long ago when I used to take him to school with me; then when he grew older; he used to work with me mainly as a sprayer. Then I was as strong as he is today but now my health and my strength do not help me that much.
Again on Thursday I returned home at about seven in the evening. I finished all the work I had to do. I was relieved and satisfied but I felt a wreck, all my joints and muscles ached; I could hardly go up the stairs. I told my wife that I promised myself that I will not work this hard anymore. She replied that I had already promised this half a dozen times. But seeing me in that state she told me that she surely won’t let me do it anymore and she reminded me that now we are both old and we should take life at a slower pace, Then she told me to sit at table and she brought a nice plate of my favorite hot soup which I enjoyed having to the last drop. Then I had a hot bath and relaxed in the hot water for half an hour. Normally we go to bed at around midnight but yesterday she insisted that we should retire early as I seemed on the verge of collapsing. At nine we were already in bed and after saying the usual prayers she kissed me goodnight and I fell asleep instantly. As now I had no worries because everything was ready, I slept like a log all night through and I relaxed in bed till 10.00am in the morning. Then I woke up slowly and to my amazement, I was no longer that tired. It seems that during the night my ‘batteries’ were recharged. But I am sure that what was most beneficial was the lack of stress which accompanied me through those four hard working days.
To conclude this unplanned story I wish to explain why I named this story,” Tomorrow is another day.” Several times in my life I had periods which were very stressful either because I had a lot of hard work to do or because I was sick or even in hospital to undergo an operation. In times like these, I always think of the day when all that hardship will pass and that day will come when everything will return back to normal. This positive thought encourages me and helps me to overcome my difficult times. Today Friday as I am writing this story, I feel that today is that day which gave me strength to continue working and it is that “Tomorrow is another day”!!
But as you all know my family and I are still having a very difficult time because one of our son’s serious illness, and I do think of that day which will be that “Tomorrow is another Day.”……………………and this nightmare will be a thing of the past!
This week I hardly made it to write this story. In fact I am writing it on Friday night and it has to be published on my blog tomorrow morning. I had another story in mind to write today. It was about my experiences of Christmas through the years. But since I have to think quite a lot and it will surely take more than just two or three hours which I have available to write this week’s story, I decided to narrate to you this week’s experience which caused this delay to happen. Mind you, I do not wish to narrate just the happenings which took place but I wish to express the feelings behind them because this is what makes the story interesting and not just the facts. Before I begin I wish to tell you that usually I write the week’s story starting on Monday night and I will continue in the following days, always late in the evening. Most often my stories will be done by Wednesday and sometimes by Thursday. This week it was different because of several circumstances.
It all began last Sunday evening when my son Daniel came to visit us. He told me that he needed a favor from me. Of course I am always too pleased to be able to help any of my children. He wanted me to make some props for a show which the Zoo Company was commissioned to do. It was not one of their regular shows but it was a national show extended over three days in which several local talents were to take part as part of the Christmas celebrations. Till two years ago I always made all the props for the Zoo shows but as I am getting old I had told them to find someone else as I always ended up tired and exhausted. The reason for this decision was because they always decide on the props in the last week before their first performance of a show and many times I had to work long hours every day to do all the work and finish it on time. Daniel told me that this show was not in their plans but since the organizers wished to have them on the show they could not refuse. The person who has been doing their props since I stopped was not available because he had other urgent things to do so Daniel asked me. The first thing I asked him was when he wanted all these things ready. His exact words were, “By Friday of next week.” So I thought that I had almost two whole weeks to do the work and I could work at a relaxed pace. I accepted and he told me that I would be paid well for my work. This was very encouraging to me because at this time of the year, everybody has a lot of expenses.
First thing in the morning on Monday, I went to buy all the necessary material. As this work involved also some welding I asked my other son the mechanic if I could work in his garage. He accepted gladly and I took all the material in a corner at the back of his garage. I started to plan all my work. The main item I had to do was Santa’s sledge. This had to be big and strong enough to be used by a big fat man who here on the island is known as Santa Clause. Of course the sledge had to run on wheels instead of sliding on snow. Late in the afternoon Daniel phoned to see if I had started to do the work. My surprise was that he mentioned that the first performance was to take place next Friday. “But you told me Friday of next week!!!” I exclaimed. It was useless to argue because he said that he always meant the coming Friday not the one after. I guess it was a misunderstanding and since I had already bought the material I had to do my best to finish all the work in four days because on Friday morning they were coming over to collect it as the first performance was on Friday evening. The first day (Monday) was almost gone so I had only three days left.
On Tuesday I designed the sledge and did all the wood work it required. Then I had to make a sort of iron carriage to put the sledge on. I cut the iron and welded all the pieces together and fixed four small but heavy duty wheels. I returned home at eight in the evening. I was tired and retired early but during the night something happened. I had this terrible burning pain in my eyes. I could not even open them. I realized that this was caused be the welding. It was ages since I had welded. I used a mask but I must have forgotten to be careful not to let the smoke or fumes, caused by the welding, to get into my eyes. At first I really panicked but a long time ago I had a similar experience but in a day or so my eyes were back to normal. I hardly slept but when I woke up in the morning, I felt better although my eyes were red and still hurt a little. Then, off I went to work. I spent all the morning making some other things which Daniel told me, among which I had to make a snowman which I did from a lot of old newspapers and I had a large sheet of plywood on which I painted a Big Christmas card. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon painting or rather spraying the sledge and the snowman. I had to apply several layers of undercoat paint so to do a good job.
I returned home after 9.00pm. I was dead tired and soon I was in bed. Of course writing this week’s story was out of the question in the past three days because I was too exhausted. That night I did not sleep well because on my mind I had this worry that I won’t be able to write a story in my blog and I know from the ‘stats’ feature in the dashboard of my blog that my usual readers which add up to a few hundreds, would be disappointed. Besides, I still had plenty of work to do and I was afraid that I would not finish all the work on time………..I only had one day left.
Yesterday , I went to my son’s garage early in the morning. I still felt the fatigue of the past three days and the effect of not having slept a good night’s sleep. I really worked hard all day long finishing all items and giving my work the final touches. Believe me this is the most stressing time for me because I am not easily satisfied and I keep touching here and there till I am 100% happy about my work. When I reached that stage, I asked my son to check my work and tell me if in his opinion everything is as it should be. He did give me some suggestions, some of which I did not agree with and I left things as they were but I did arrange a couple of things he suggested.
My son, other than being very technical is also a very good craftsman so I always value his opinion. Besides, I couldn’t help noticing in these four days I spent with him how hard he works. It happened that these past four days he had two night shifts and two off days from his main work as an engineer at our power station. After a night’s work at the power station he would keep on working in his garage repairing people’s cars all day long. His customers really respect him and his friendly attitude with everyone, makes me very proud of him. Moreover, I saw the difference between him and me. The almost 30 year gap between our ages, is that obvious. He is strong and it seems that he never gets tired. I remembered long ago when I used to take him to school with me; then when he grew older; he used to work with me mainly as a sprayer. Then I was as strong as he is today but now my health and my strength do not help me that much.
Again on Thursday I returned home at about seven in the evening. I finished all the work I had to do. I was relieved and satisfied but I felt a wreck, all my joints and muscles ached; I could hardly go up the stairs. I told my wife that I promised myself that I will not work this hard anymore. She replied that I had already promised this half a dozen times. But seeing me in that state she told me that she surely won’t let me do it anymore and she reminded me that now we are both old and we should take life at a slower pace, Then she told me to sit at table and she brought a nice plate of my favorite hot soup which I enjoyed having to the last drop. Then I had a hot bath and relaxed in the hot water for half an hour. Normally we go to bed at around midnight but yesterday she insisted that we should retire early as I seemed on the verge of collapsing. At nine we were already in bed and after saying the usual prayers she kissed me goodnight and I fell asleep instantly. As now I had no worries because everything was ready, I slept like a log all night through and I relaxed in bed till 10.00am in the morning. Then I woke up slowly and to my amazement, I was no longer that tired. It seems that during the night my ‘batteries’ were recharged. But I am sure that what was most beneficial was the lack of stress which accompanied me through those four hard working days.
To conclude this unplanned story I wish to explain why I named this story,” Tomorrow is another day.” Several times in my life I had periods which were very stressful either because I had a lot of hard work to do or because I was sick or even in hospital to undergo an operation. In times like these, I always think of the day when all that hardship will pass and that day will come when everything will return back to normal. This positive thought encourages me and helps me to overcome my difficult times. Today Friday as I am writing this story, I feel that today is that day which gave me strength to continue working and it is that “Tomorrow is another day”!!
But as you all know my family and I are still having a very difficult time because one of our son’s serious illness, and I do think of that day which will be that “Tomorrow is another Day.”……………………and this nightmare will be a thing of the past!
I just received an email from one of my son's customer who took these photos with his mobile last Thursday. He was impressed and asked me if he could take the photos. I gave him my email address and he promised to send them to me.
Quote of the day:
If you fill your heart with regrets of yesterday and the worries of tomorrow you have no today to be thankful for.
Quote of the day:
If you fill your heart with regrets of yesterday and the worries of tomorrow you have no today to be thankful for.