Have you ever been in a store that had a barrel by the cashier's full of small brown paper bags stapled shut? The sign on the barrel might read Mixed Bag $5. If you buy one you will find a variety of gadgets perhaps even a thing-a-ma-gig you needed among other stuff that is not so helpful.
My life is rather like that right now.
During Frontier Days, we did a book signing at the Old West Museum that we scheduled at the same time the rodeo was on. Oops. Not much traffic, but our own fault. I got to meet a few nice people, anyway.
After the signing, we both got Covid. Dang! Rog got pneumonia along with a second dose of Covid. He was hospitalized for 5 days, and since I got bronchitis, I couldn't even check him out of the hospital. My daughter drove up from Denver and got him home. Wonderful daughter.
We toddled along getting better every day. The Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Conference was about to begin in Denver. We went down early to watch our oldest granddaughter play a softball game. Walking out of my daughter's garage, I tripped and fell. Oops! I felt a little bruised, but my granddaughter won her game. Yay!
Afterwards, I asked my daughter to take me to Urgent Care because the conference requires a lot of walking and if I broke my foot, I needed to get it stabilized that night. Yup, broken. The silver lining was I got a lot of quality time with my daughter which I loved. Yay! I also got a big black boot that was going to be the bane of my existence for six long weeks. Yuck!
They inducted my husband into the Cheyenne Frontier Days Hall of Fame. Great! You can see the tip of the ugly black boot peeking out from under my long black dress.
Are you seeing a pattern?
Although recently, my life has seemed more chaotic than usual, I suspect everybody's life is a mixed bag like mine. The details are different, but there is always a mix of the good with the bad. I have a sign on my dresser that says, "Whatever roughens your nerves, polishes your soul."
Lately, I have been doing a little more marketing for my book. I feel like an awkward used car salesman, but the people I have met have been so excited for me and that it made it fun.
Fall is here in the Rocky Mountains and the leaves are brilliant to behold, but we know Winter is on our doorstep. I am slowly learning to enjoy my mixed bag. After Winter comes Spring. A Mixed Bag can bring surprises you never knew existed. Isn't it exciting?