Smudger Snippets
Created | Updated May 21, 2008
I suppose it's because I have so much time on my hands these days, that all these memories come flooding back to me.
Take for Granted
Once again I sit here and stare into a blank screen, and that can be very frustrating when you have a thousand ideas going around in your head, yet can't seem to log on to one in particular to put down on paper, or on the screen in this case. I was just thinking the other day how easy it is for us to take things, or people, for granted. We are guilty of doing this at some time in our lives, even though we do not realise it at the time. I am sure that I am not the only male to be accused of taking his wife or partner for granted, and I must admit that women are not frightened of coming forward and telling us that we are doing so (well at least the women I have known in my life haven't anyway). The thing, really: it is not until we lose something that we then realise just how much it meant to us, and it's too late to do anything about it once it has gone.
Of course this could be anything from a relationship with another person or a relative, to a favourite place or item that you have owned.
I remember when I was young, that the concept of actually seeing the person you are talking to on a screen, while having a conversation with them at the same time, would be such a big deal that I never thought I would be able to see it happen in my lifetime. Yet I saw it on futuristic films and TV programmes. Of course, there are a lot of other things that I never thought I would see in my lifetime which have transpired, computers being one of them.
When I first got the webcam for my computer I could not wait to use it, and link up with some of my old mates for a video link-up. I had seen the small video camera next to their profile on what was then MSN Messenger, which meant that they had a webcam hooked up to their computers. Even keeping in touch with them by typing messages back and forth in real time was great, but actually being able to see and speak to them in real time was just fantastic! Yet after a while it was soon left on the shelf in my desktop cabinet, which has also been made redundant since I got this laptop, another novelty which I seem to have taken for granted. Another thing I had taken for granted was our car, which we have through the mobility scheme for disabled people and has been a Godsend to us both, as without it we would never get out of the house. Anyway, it was in for its service one day, and was due to be collected later on that afternoon. When the postman had left a card saying that there was a parcel for us to collect from the main Post Office, which is about seven miles away, as it would not fit through the letter box. Of course that would happen on the one day that we didn't have our car to go and collect it.
Another thing that I took for granted was my Internet connection, there I was, setting up my computer for my usual couple of hours' surfing, when I noticed that it was not connecting to the Internet. No matter what I did, it just would not log on. Even after my desperate phone call to the help line, who had gone through all things possible, it turned out to be a problem on my computer. Well for the next few evenings I was like a bear with a sore head, totally lost, and just could not settle down at all. I tried watching TV but I could not resist walking through to our spare bedroom just to see if the computer had miraculously fixed itself, which of course was a ridiculous thought, but when you are going through withdrawal symptoms like that, you will clutch at any straw available. I remember thinking at the time just how easy it is to take little things for granted, let alone major things. So you can imagine what it felt like for me when, after buying this laptop, I found myself back online and going through the hundreds of Emails that had accumulated during my few weeks of not having a computer. I will never take this laptop for granted now, and will make the best of the time I have with it. I did manage to repair the desk top a couple of months later, and it's great to be able to have them both online now.
I think looking back on it all now, that my first wife and I took each other for granted after a while. We had been married for twenty three years before we split up, and I think it was the fact that I was working away from home for so many of those years, that caused us to split up. We simply seemed to drift apart into our own separate worlds. I realise now that we both took each other for granted, so we were both to blame really. So I made a promise to Mk2 when we first got together, that if she ever thought that I was taking her for granted, to let me know straight away, as I did not want to go through that ever again. We have been happily married now for thirteen years, and I think I can safely say that neither of us have taken each other for granted. There have been a few changes in our lives during that time, and we have gone through a lot of stressful times, some of which would have caused a divorce in a weaker marriage, yet we are still strong. I think the event that brought this home to the both of us was when Mk2 was told that she had emphysema and that it was a terminal illness. That was four years ago now, two more than they gave her at the time, so you can imagine that neither of us take good health for granted, and that we do in fact make the best of each day that we have left together, and no way do we take such things for granted any more.
