Temporal Stress (Jangly Nerves)

 

The "unexpected" is occasionally good.... but often-times it is just stressful. Today's "unexpected" was definitely just stressful.

My wife and I were both home in the early morning.  I had my electronic "cyborg" type of teaching to do today and so I had to be ready to teach my class on-line.  My wife was staying home for a bit before she was going to do some of her things at her work later in the morning.  So, since we each had a bit of time before our required, scheduled appointments began for the day, we decided to go on a brief outing to the Starbucks' Drive-Thru Window to each get an icy blended beverage that is almost like a milkshake (they call them  Frappuccinos).  My wife had a fully loaded caramel crunch vanilla one, and I had a super low/no fat Matcha Green Tea one.  

Unfortunately, on the drive back, my wife's vehicle started to sound odd, and I had a sinking feeling..... and I had her pull into the parking lot of the "Harbor Freight" store we were just driving by (it was closed as it was early morning).  I looked around the vehicle, and.... as I expected.... the driver's side, rear tire was flatter than a pancake.  I could even still hear a little bit of "hissing" still.  We must have just ran over something or other that successfully punctured the damn tire.  

Normally not the biggest deal in the world.... just a bit of a nuisance.  But.... because both my wife and I had scheduled, work related appointments coming up quickly..... the sight of the damn flat sent surges of all of the short-term and long-term stress hormones into my bloodstream.  Even though I know I was only imagining it, it FELT like my adrenal glands were being squeezed tightly like you do a lemon you are trying to juice (the adrenals produce the array of stress hormones).  

I began calling wrecker services because time was of the essence.  We were at least two miles from a tire repair center, I had no time to try to actually change to the tire, and my wife's vehicle has one of those damn "donut" tiny temporary tires anyway, and her vehicle was absolutely filled to the brim with things she had in the trunk and it would have taken at least half an hour to get all the stuff out and get the tire and jack and set up, let alone the actual mechanics of changing the tire which would have probably taken another 45 minutes or more, and we could not simply drive there as the tire was FULLY flat.  The first wrecker service I called said it would be at least 2.5 hours we would have to wait as there was a big accident they were responding to across town.  The second wrecker service also had the same response as they were also responding to apparently the same accident.  The third service said they were "short" staffed today and did not have anyone to come out at the moment because almost all their people had called in sick.  Finally the fourth one said it would take 20-30 minutes to get there.

We eventually got the vehicle to the repair place, and it was busy too, so I waited around outside until my turn eventually came, dropped off the keys and mentioned, reminded them that we get tires from them all the time, but that we would REALLY prefer to get the tire repaired instead of buying a new one if at all possible, since we were not planning on keeping the vehicle much longer.  They planned to call us later today when it was ready.

Fortunately, while I was inside dealing with the tire, my wife was actually able to get a hold of her brother and very surprisingly he was able to pick us up and get us back to our home. My wife quickly dressed for work (in about 2 minutes) and I ran to dress for class too.  My brother-in-law was able to drop my wife off at work, and I was able to get in front of my computer about 5 minutes before class was set to start.  

My nerves were so damn jangly by the point.  What I very, very truthfully wanted at that moment more than anything was to fill and fire up my pipe, and take several consecutive, long, deep, deep draws from the stem.  That had frequently been a helpful pattern I had for coping with the "jangly" nerves I get when I am feeling the stress of a time related requirement that becomes difficult and out of my control to fix.  I would feel a bit calmer.  I kept eyeing my bent bulldog pipe (much like the one pictured), on the rack in front of me.  I only had a minute or two before I needed to open up the video lecture, so I grabbed the little bulldog pipe and even though it was empty, I went through the "motions" of holding it in my mouth, and taking slow, deep draws from the stem.  Other than the very pleasant, "ghost taste" of the air that had gone through the stem which had acquired just a little bit of the flavor of the residue of the last pipe tobacco I had smoked in that in that bowl, it really wasn't helpful in reducing stress, and I had already guessed it wouldn't really help much.  But, I put the pipe back in the rack and proceed to turn on the video to begin lecture.  Luckily, my lecture wasn't too bad, even though I still felt "jangly" as hell, and was not in strong focus.  A few more meetings occur soon, one more lecture today, and then grading for the rest of the day.

And, I still have to run later to day to boot.  I had hoped to get that finished before the first lecture today.  I just really dislike and do not do well when the timing of my day gets all shot to hell. And, I have a stress headache as well, unfortunately.

PipeTobacco