Complaining from the Bright Side

There are two warring forces within me:  the love of creative complaining and this relentless tendency to "look on the bright side."

For example, take winter (please). I hate winter, as you probably know if you are friends or regular readers of this blog. I could complain all day about winter, but generally save my weather-related complaints for snow.  In the face of any other kind of inclement weather the bright side for me is "At least it isn't snowing."

However, this winter is really testing my patience in ways that have nothing to do with snow (and it's only January 20).  While I am feeling the urge to bemoan the woes of this winter, I am also trying to keep the bright side in mind.

Let's examine:

"Shoveling" the Driveway  I decided to "shovel" the dusting of snow on my driveway on Christmas Eve because the family was coming over to celebrate.  Although it seemed like an easy enough chore, I managed to wrench my lower back (because I am klutzy that way) meaning that I spent the rest of the holidays in pain.

The Bright Side  Everyone made it into the house safely. 

Power Outage  The power at my house decided to go out just as I was ready to go to work my first day back after the holidays.  I was effectively trapped in the house without power or heat because my car was in the garage, the automatic garage door opener did not work, and I could not manually open the garage door because of that still tender back.

The Bright Side  I managed to work from home on my tablet, wrapped in blankets, because it was cold.  By the time the power came back on, it just made more sense to finish out my work day at home because we were in a major snow event.  I missed having to drive in several inches of snow that hadn't been cleared by the afternoon rush.

Sub Zero Temperatures  Pittsburgh experienced several days with temperatures below zero, virtually unheard of in our area.

The Bright Side  Hmm, this is a hard one.  How about, statistically, the crime rate drops when the weather is this cold?

The Burst Pipe to Nowhere I came home a day or two after the weather began to warm after those sub zero temperatures to find water rushing into my living room through the floor into the basement.  Without going into all the sordid details, by the time the water was turned off about 20 minutes later, the living room and basement were flooded.  Assuring that the floors and walls are dry and free of mildew and mold required that dehumidifiers and very noisy fans ran constantly in our living room and basement for the next six days.  We could not walk in the living room without waterproof boots.  We still have to get the pipe and walls repaired, the pad under the carpet replaced and the carpet cleaned.  

The Bright Side  It was an isolated pipe to an outdoor spigot (which we never did use) so we continued to have water to use in our kitchen and bathroom throughout the incident.  It is all covered by insurance so it is more of an inconvenience than anything.  And the silence in the living room never sounded so sweet.

And So It Continues  This week's forecast includes more single digit temperatures, and snow every day all week, and we should have approximately two months more of potential winter weather.

The Bright Side Come to think of it, I can't think of any.  I'll have to get back to you on that.