You’ll Like Life More When You Take The Time To Find The Silver Linings

I made an expensive whoopsie last night.

As I pulled out of the parking lot at the grocery store I felt the car collide with the barrier. It was at that moment I realized that I lost a bit of the good lead I had on my credit card debt. Especially because the last thing I’m going to do is file an insurance claim over something that involved me being a dumbass. 

There is an ugly scratch, the bottom part looks a little shredded and the damned rear passenger side door is bent. 

That’s the main Uber door. 

My preliminary Googles let me know this is going to run me a couple of thousand dollars. 

I wasn’t even high. I chose not to smoke and said I’d go home first. Stopped at the grocery store and made a dumb old whoopsie. 

I can assure you last night was not my happiest moment, but then I realized this could be an expensive AF gift.

A forced vacation from Uber Driver is now upon me

If someone takes a pic of my scratched up door and whines on social media, Uber can fire me.

While I can probably take the risk at night, I’d rather get this dealt with sooner than later. On top of the money, there is a time cost for this kind of work. Once the repair parts are done, they need to repaint the car. 

Turns out scratches are no-no for Uber. Most little ones are fine, and no one will care. Big grating ones on your door are a problem. Ubers are supposed to be pretty. It makes sense.

When they repaint the car, it’s going to be a whole effort. Sanding, filling gaps, more sanding, priming, painting, polishing stuff.

As the homie Rene put it, this will literally involve waiting for paint to dry.

Given this is easy, it will still mean I don’t have my car for 2-3 business days, best case. 

If these people need to wait for parts, it could be even longer. 

All that to say, I’m facing a week or so where I can’t do Uber.

Because trust me if I had the car I’d ignore stuff to go Uber.

Once you accept reality, pivot and find a new path

It may just be that the next couple of weeks cost me a couple of Gs of repair work and another wad of cash of lost revenue.

On a real tip, I’ve also been tired and sloppy lately. At one point in life it clicked why rich people take so many vacations. That recharge period is necessary when you work like 60 hours a week (which I easily do across everything).

In the past I had paid vacation, 6 weeks of it, and I used all of it. Now I don’t even get holidays off. I mean I can take a holiday off but that means I give up revenue.

This has been a transformative year where I doubt I’ll ever be as lazy or comfortable again. 

I also haven’t stopped and it’s been affecting my joy.

Some days I don’t even want to write because it’s like another hour away from rest.

Personally, I believe in God. I think God watches over us and when we refuse to be smart, he gives us lessons that will resonate with us.

When I spend thousands of dollars on something up front, I take that lesson very seriously. That is not the kind of thing I repeat. While I will get right back to pushing myself to the limit the second I can, in the meantime I have a whole upcoming weekend I likely won’t even have a car for.

This means I have a lot of extra time that I can use in a bunch of new ways.

Instead of being miserable about the car, which low key I still am, I can see the blessing in the gift of time off. 

Forced or otherwise.

Take life’s lessons and use them as fuel for the future

It was brought to my attention via ugly scratches on my car that when I’m parked close to walls and barricades I may need to pay more attention.

On the road I’m proper with it. That is easy. I can navigate all over the cities and have 0 issues. 

Switching lanes in traffic, no problem. 

Once we are in parking land, it’s a different game. 

The barricade that messed up my car was not in my mirrors and was below the window. Instead of making sure I had cleared it I trusted my instincts. Big ol’ dummy mistake.

This kind of thing scars me into better behaviour. 

I will likely be overly cautious in parking lots, or when parking close to walls in general. 

Frankly, I don't want to park next to barricades like that no more.

All I can do is grow from this and not be a negative nancy. I can deal with this. I am not hurt and I’ll probably get to actually spend a few hours playing Cyberpunk.

I can probably head over to Growve MTL and rap this week. 

There is not a universe where I believe spending a lot of money on something like this is cool. On the other hand, all the successful people around me know how to write this kind of thing off, deal with it and move on. I’m learning how to be like them.

I can make that money back and that in and of itself is a big blessing. Losses are there to motivate future wins. Despite this annoyance, we really are still out here winning in life.

Live Long and Prosper Everyone