Morten's Salt

You know when you reach my age you are often caught between generations and their unique set of problems. On the one hand, you have kids and grand kids and on the other you have aging parents.
Let's take kids and grand kids; Mom, would it be okay if I used your (fill in the blank). "Well, of course it's okay to use my ( whatever you filled in the blank with). Make sure you return it and it's still in working order." Now that may be a statement that is often assumed instead of spoken. If this happens once, it won't happen twice. You'll remember to say it on each borrowing occasion.
Then you hear, " Meme, I hate my mom (the one you raised). Se is so mean and unfair. I wish you were my mother." Of course that's when you remember to be grateful for the small stuff like, you're not their mother. And this goes on for weeks and then the drama calms to a low hum. And you find yourself at peace and actually planning to do something for yourself. After a few days of day dreaming about the future, the phone rings......
"Pam, I have your mother here in the emergency room." So, day dreams aside, you make a mad dash to the ER to be by your mom's side and talk to the doctors and nurses and try to keep everything straight. After too many hours you are eternally grateful that God has heard and answered your prayer and everyone gets to go home with orders to see your primary care doctor the next day.
Then you have a few weeks in a row that everyone's problems and drama overlap and you find yourself examining everything you've done NOT to deserve this. Then in the midst of that examination you remember, "I'm the in-between generation. Life happens."
Now at this point I remember that I have a life of my own and I have friends with the same problems. So I call up some friends and we meet for lunch. We don't talk about those problems. I mean after all, we are trying to escape for a bit of time. So after a three hour lunch with my Diva Pearls (that's what we call ourselves) I am refreshed and rejuvenated. Problems are the same, but I'm not.
I get home five hours later, turn the ceiling fan on, sit down on the sofa for a rest and just bask in the refreshing time I just experienced. Then it happened. The fan started to growl at me. Then it sizzled, yep, sizzled at me. I get up and turn the knob to off. I call into the next room to tell Mike the fan has just died. He comes in and says, "So I'm guessing you have the Morten's Salt with you today?" I just have to laugh! Seriously, laugh out loud! I mean what else are you going to do? Because, when it rains, it pours.