It’s Wednesday afternoon and I’m home by myself. Rita has gone to visit and have dinner with some old friends from the Cadillac library. I rather enjoy a little time alone (occasionally), and thought I’d write something a little humorous.

When we moved back from Texas we brought no furniture, and were graciously allowed to stay at the church building for a couple of weeks until we found our apartment. All of our furniture and furnishings, for the most part, were provided by The Ground Up, a program run out of, but not associated with, the church. They even moved us into our apartment when the time came, which was a tremendous blessing.

Among the items were a king-sized bed, which we hadn’t had since before moving to Texas. It came with two twin box springs which had legs and casters attached to them. While at the church building, the room had carpeting, but even then we began to get a sense of what was to come, as the bed had a habit of rolling around while trying to get into it.

An important point to note is our apartment has no carpet in it at all. While this makes for easy cleanup, it required that we place pads on the feet of all the furniture and attempt to somehow corral the bed. The first part was easy; the second, not so much. Placing the usual rubber blocks under the wheels worked only as long as no one touched the bed, which would immediately roll off, as if it were laughing at our feeble attempts. Its travel was only limited by the bedside tables pushed up against the side walls,

After two months of playing roller derby when trying to go to bed at night, we finally decided to get a simple bed platform to put under the mattress; not just any platform, but a steel one rated for 3500 pounds. It was delivered in a 50 pound cardboard box by the Amazon delivery driver. I could barely drag the box far enough into the house to close the door.

It sat there until today, when a couple of church friends (REALLY good friends, as it turns out) came to retrieve the box springs for the Ground Up. They were kind enough to stay and help build the platform and manhandle the mattress on to it. A quick test showed the bed wasn’t going anywhere. Plus, it’s a few inches lower, which means no longer having to high jump into the bed. Suddenly, the dread of bedtime has disappeared!

It’s not always the big things which make such a difference in life; in fact, it’s usually not at all. Learning to appreciate the small blessings, like a bed that stands still, or the bigger ones like friends who care for you, are what makes life worthwhile. They bring joy even on a gray, rainy day.