Normal

As the week comes to a close I find myself drained by dozens of things that are demanding my attention. The trees in my yard stare at me every morning and night. I have several large branches still hanging from the trees. Lots of ripped off places on limbs were branches have broken off and fallen to the ground. One tree service I got an estimate from called the hanging branches "hangers" and the broken off branches "shiners". By the end of tomorrow I will have 5 estimates. None of the estimates are within my bank account range so April and I will have to figure out how to pay for the thousands of dollars or just let the trees stay in their current dilemma and wait for the "hangers" to fall and hope the shiners don't kill off the rest of the tree.

I've witnessed several events that have been postponed because of the storm. Some of them are right on the heels of the storm like our fundraiser next week, which was rescheduled, and some of the events are at the end of February or early March. The wide range of opinion about what should and shouldn't go ahead as planned has been interesting to watch from people I know. For some a return to normalcy was the most important. For others the storm was something that they felt needed a certain amount of time for healing before returning to normal. That healing will take several weeks after their power was restored.

I've always been of the opinion that when something knocks you down you get right back up and keep moving. I know that several of my friends disagree with that. What's normal? What's the right answer? I don't think anyone knows. It's different for every single person.

I'm currently reading a book by Paco Underhill called "Why we buy"- the science of shopping. Many of the things that he has studied about the way people shop over the years can be summed up pretty neatly. However any rule that works for the majority always has an exception.

I've reached a point in life that normal is what most people would consider extreme. It funny. Whenever I think I'm the only person who feels a certain way I find out that there is a large majority that think just like I do. At the same time when I think that everybody thinks the same way I do, I find out that a great deal of people don't think that way.

Normal is somewhere in between.