Wordsley, Stourbridge, England: 17 degrees, warmish, overcast and with showers.
I tried to change the keyboard on my computer yesterday. It broke on Sunday, which was my fault, but it was already failing, and I only made it worse when I tried to clean it.
I went to a computer repair shop in Brettel Lane to see if it could be repaired. The man there said the keyboard was not in stock anywhere in England and was only available in China, with a 20-day minimum delivery.
There’s another shop near my mother’s that I had visited before coming here, but it was shut. The man from the closed shop—I like him and prefer to do business with him. Since I have been in England, I trust him because he helped me out when I first arrived.
So today, I wanted to go to Richard’s Shop to see if he has a keyboard or can find one and get my computer fixed. I also need to visit the West Bromwich building society for my mother. Now, I hate going there because there have always been problems, and although they’re reasonably polite, it’s clear that I’m not really welcome.
B#tch manageress!
Richards’ computer shop was open, but he didn’t have the keyboard, and he also confirmed that this model wasn’t available in England at the moment. Either I buy a new computer, which I don’t want to do right now, or buy a portable keyboard and plug it into the USB port, improvise, and use it, which is what I did. I paid Richard £20 for a new portable keyboard to temporarily resolve the problem.
However, it is only temporary because carrying a huge extra keyboard around with me is a real pain in the backside.
For me, this is an interesting situation: life throws you a curveball, and you have to deal with it. The problem isn’t necessarily the problem itself, but how you truly handle it and also how you react or act to resolve it.
Many people nowadays react to problems rather than act. Reacting is a reaction of indignation, complaint and a bit of victimisation. Acting on the issue is more effective in resolving it than anything else. Nowadays, regarding myself, I try to act more than react.
I know that eventually any problem will be resolved, so why react? And knowing that it will ultimately be resolved — time is a healer — when a problem arises, a trick is not to immediately react but to give it some time, letting time act as a buffer between reaction and action.
Manage your reaction and work on bettering your actions.
The issue with my keyboard and computer has been temporarily fixed. I also visited Kingswinford to handle my usual banking chores for my mother and to do a bit of shopping. In the afternoon, I needed to buy a few things before heading back.
It’s just a typical working day, where, in between my work, I help my mother with her needs. I try to find pleasure in small things, like being with Julie, watering the garden, walking, or going to the cafe.
Can we be happy all the time? I don’t believe we can. But can we be positive and see the best in every situation? I think we can!
Can we find the positive side even when it is hard to see? I believe we can. Our state of mind and how we guide the bias of our thoughts are essential for our overall well-being. If we seek out a positive side, positivity will emerge. If we constantly focus on the negative side, negativity will dominate and take over.
You decide which side to feed and then walk along that path!
Because of the problem with my keyboard, I’ve decided that this is a week when I won’t be posting a blog entry. It’s more for journaling this week, catching up on backlog, and getting everything up to date.
Whether I will manage to do it all or not, I am unsure, but that is the goal. I feel that I have a lot of loose ends at the moment that need tidying up. If not, those frayed ends could grow long tails, like spaghetti on the floor, and if I am not careful, I could slip, hurt myself badly, and then I would be finished.
I have not come this far by giving up, and I will not slip either.
In bed by midnight.
Thank you.
Thanks for reading this blog post. Please explore my other posts and share your thoughts in the comments section.
Richard
