SILVER LININGS....

Louis' association with Colorado Ranchers Cheese (Queso Campesino) has come to an end.  So, things are going to be a little different around here, once again, until he finds a new job.  Some plans may have to be changed--most obviously my plan to retire in January of 2016--but things will work out. They always do. Just don't know how at this moment.  And, there may be a silver lining to this dark cloud.  Louis may find a job that is closer to home and not have to commute for an hour every weekday morning at o'dark hundred.  Or maybe he will be able to find a job that will give him a raise in salary.  Who knows?

"Every cloud has a silver lining."  This is a proverb that was officially documented in the first half of the 19th century.  Some think it refers to Milton's poem Comus.  Could be.  But it was  also in a book written by P.T. Barnum in 1869 and appeared in the dictionary by 1870-1875.  It is a phrase that is meant to give a comforting or hopeful aspect to an otherwise gloomy prospect.  The trouble is most of the time you have to wait a lengthy period before you realize that a certain event was actually a prelude to something really good.  I can think of some situations in the Nichols Family and my own life that turned out that way.

Take for example that unfortunate incident last summer when I was driving home from DIA late on the night before the 4th of July--ecstatic that after several days of flying straight from June into July that I had been released for the holiday. (Forget they did it so United didn't have to pay me holiday pay!)  When that hood from someone's car in the southbound lane came sailing toward my car during especially windy weather, I was just thankful it hit the ground in front of me and not smash into my windshield.  I tried to swerve and avoid it, but the hood glanced off the bumper and I ran over it with my right front tire.  I was shocked and shaken.  But I was also stunned that my car was still able to drive, and I had lucked out with such a small result from the potential accident that could have been.

Then came the weeks of getting the damage estimates, the insurance approval, and choosing the auto body shop to do the work.  Next it was fitting MY schedule with Blue Ribbon Auto Repair's schedule.  The summer passed and it was almost September before my car finally had the necessary repairs done.  

Imagine my pure surprise and relief when I took a look at the newly refurbished Momma G car.  The headlights were BRAND NEW in that replaced bumper.  For about the previous couple of years I had looked at the very scratched and no longer able to shine-a-bright-light headlights and wondered just exactly how one would go about getting them repaired.  And there was the solution--brought about by an entirely different circumstance.  I still look at the shiny new headlights as I go out into the garage to take off and thank my lucky stars that the awful scary event last summer produced an unexpected bonus.  Truly a silver lining in that cloud!

Now that silver lining only took a couple of months to show up, but this next one from my life experience I'm going to share took years and years before it was clear it was a silver lining.

As you recall, we had only the Mustang until Britty was six months old.  Dad needed the car every day to go to work.  And we either walked or rode our bikes if we wanted to go somewhere--or else we stayed at home.  Sooooo we did just that, beginning when Harold was just an infant.  I would walk from our apartment at 253 Grant up Logan Street to the chapel at 7th and Pearl for Relief Society on Tuesday mornings.  At first I carried Harold in my arms, then Beth cast her old baby stroller our way and I bounced Harold along in the buggy.  Then we would repeat the same thing on Thursday afternoon for Primary because I was the First Counselor. Dad would pick us up after Primary on his way home from work.

One day shortly after we moved to our Welch Court house, I heard a honk outside and went to look out the door.  There were my dad and mom in the pickup with the back clear full of all my stuff that had been in their basement.  I must have looked pretty shocked because my dad said, "Well, you have a house now."  And there was my old Elliot Ness whitewall tires bike that I got in the Third Grade from Santa Claus, along with scrapbooks, formals, and school memorabilia.  

I laughed.  What was I going to do with that?  To which my mother replied that I just may want to take my little boys for a ride around the neighborhood.  Sooooo we did just that! Ross bought a huge newsboy basket to put baby Brice in and a child seat in back for Harold.  That's how we got around the neighborhood.  When the next summer rolled around, we had saved enough money to purchase a brand new ten speed for Ross and another child seat.  By that time Brice was a year old, and he rode on the back of my bike while Harold rode on the back of Ross'.  We biked on all those roads west of Arvada up Highway 72 to Plainview, as well as up to the train tracks to see the Denver and Rio Grande trains including the California Zephyr.  We also biked to Church down to 32nd and McIntyre until our own chapel was built out on 72nd Avenue.

As the years passed, I got a 10 speed, too, Harold and Brice each learned to ride their own bikes while Burgandy and Jeremy took their places in the basket first, then graduated to the kid seat on the back of the big bikes. (Harold got on that first bike and took off.  I still think it had to do with the fact he had been on the back of Ross' bike for so long, he already had the balance thing down pat.)

Sounds fun, huh?  Well, it was in the summer.  But when it was windy and cold or snowy and icy, not so much.  When ward members would come up to me and say how lucky we were to ride our bikes and their kids were so envious, I would think in my mind, "Yeah, it's just the most fun EVER!  YOU ought to try it!"   But years later now, I realize that is what made us healthy, well, and independent.  Thanks to that biking and walking kids up to Kindergarten, etc. I stayed in good physical shape with stamina and well-being that has lasted way into my sixth decade.

And lastly, after Ross finally finished his degree in December 1978 he applied for and was offered a job with FMC Corporation in Southern Wyoming.  In February after he and I had gone to Green River for the interviews, we drove back up one weekend to look for a house.  Harold had the Chicken Pox and was feeling really crappy, but we were excited and looking forward to a new change in our lives.  Whereas I had initially balked at leaving Denver and moving back to Wyoming, Ross suggested I look at how close by my parents would be and we would be able to associate with them more and also be closer to Lois and Dale's cabin going the other direction.  When I could actually visualize houses we could live in, school for Harold and Brice to attend, and where we would go to church, everything seemed to be okay.  That was the tenor of the conversation the whole six hours we were in the car.

However, the next morning when we got up at Lois' house and Ross was supposed to go with Dale and his friend at FMC and I with the realtor, the whole picture changed.  First Ross expressed to me that he didn't think this was the right move to make for our family.  I poohed poohed his comment trying to reassure him that once he talked to the FMC guy and took his tour, he would feel differently.  But as the day wore on and I expected to see Ross' face take on that confident look which was so recognizable when he felt good about something, it didn't happen.  Instead he said he was even more convinced it would not be a good thing to do.

Lois was irritated and said Ross was just a big city boy who didn't want to move to a small town.  I was disappointed after I had built myself up to the notion I would be living near family in a new house.  And the kids were....confused!  We left Sunday morning for Denver because Ross had to catch a plane later that day for a business trip.  We fasted all that day and prayed to know what to do.  Ross had given his notice at Ball Corporation, so basically at the end of that month he would be out of a job.  We left Ross at Stapleton with the promise to each other that we would continue to pray about it, but he was pretty adamant that we had already received an answer: NO!  The one thing Ross had was faith.  I had depended on him and his faith in making decisions all during our married life, and I knew when he was acting on that faith.

Long story short.  Ball was thrilled to take Ross back into their employment.  And the rest is history:  our move later that year to the Secrest Court house before we moved to Virginia where Schuyler was born; the the next year to Sweden; the following year to Upstate New York; and two years after Britty was born to Berlin.  Whew!  NONE of that would have happened if Ross had accepted employment at FMC, and we had moved to Wyoming.  A few years later, we also found out that the department at FMC Ross would have been working for had been eliminated.  Sooooo, there you go!

Yep!  My life's playbook has had a lot of "Silver Linings", so I anticipate this newest wrinkle in Louis' emloyment may also be one.  

I'll let you know....