Little Victories

Sometimes, it's easy to get overwhelmed (or even just -whelmed) by grand visions. Frustrated by the slow pace of progress. In knots about failures or perceived failures. Fed up with your inability to execute on your dreams. Paralyzed by the genius of your own ideas.

Okay, that last one never really happens to me. But still...

Most of the time it's better to break the world into small, manageable tasks and take pride in accomplishing them one at a time.

For instance: I fixed the venting system on my dryer this weekend. I know, I know... it's not selling a million copies of a record, or recording an album, fighting famine in Africa, or buying a car... but it did involve the following: 1. Identifying the problem: namely that a bird had built a nest in the old vent/tube, which was causing the dryer to vent into my house, not to the outside... which is not a good situation. 2. Plugging said venting hole to insure that in the absence of the tubing, the bird did not return and take up residence in my actual house. 3. Continuing to identify the problem: namely that once I scared the bird off, I realized the tubing for the vent was irreparably damaged and needed to be replaced. 4. Going to Home Depot and buying the correct part, namely an 8 foot flexible venting tube with clamps. 5. Moving the washer/dryer combo just enough so I could squeeze my not-so-small frame behind it for access to the back of the dryer. 6. Identifying that I need to remove a part (a metal tube) from the old flexible tube and attach it to the new tube, also flipping it around to fit properly. 7. Executing said replacement, fitting the clamps around both the dryer back and the wall vent. 8. Realizing in my maneuvers I had poked a small hole in the tubing, and fixing it with the greatest repair tool known to man... that's right, duct tape. 9. Turning on the dryer and smiling as the tube filled with exhaust and piped said exhaust to the outside. 10. Smiling even broader when I realized that I managed to spend $10 on a new part, rather than $150 on a service call to a Maytag technician.

So there you go... I did not get any notice on Sunday about receiving a gold or platinum record. I did not record or write a song. I did not buy a car. I did not adopt an African orphan (as far as I remember). But I did triumph over a small, inanimate object and bested an animal with a brain roughly the size of a mouse turd.

And some days, that's all you can ask for.

jbg