THE FORCED BREAK

365 Days of Thanksliving — Day 309

You know the sound. From out of nowhere, the grid just gives up the ghost. In a cascade of dying electronics, everything spins down to a dead halt within seconds. Vvvwwwoooooooomp... click. Nothing quite like a forced break right smack in the middle of your workday.

All I know is it was sometime after lunch. I’d just gotten back to the office and fired up the editing software for this week’s video. And oof, y’all, I was in the flow—totally in the groove. The timeline was clicking, time itself wasn’t even a thing, and I was making magic. Then, BAM. Darkness.

"Siri. Call Danielle."

Calling Danielle Bonnick-SEN.

"Honey, you up at work, or are we down at home too?" The wife informed me she was dead in the water. Ugh. When she’s not clocked in, she’s gotta take PTO. So this unforced break definitely wasn’t part of her grand plan for the day. But me? I took it as a gift.

Without technology, there’s only so much a guy can do at the office—especially when editing the video requires a computer. So, I took full advantage and went for a short drive. There’s an abandoned farm site a few miles out of town, and since this week is practically the last decent window to snap a Milky Way shot for the season, I figured I’d go scope out the composition.

Sadly, the shot's a bust. The property owners are using it to stage their harvesting equipment. Hey, I can’t blame them—it's their land and it's harvest time. Besides, there’s always next year.

With that quick turnaround, I headed back to the church to wrap things up. I popped my head in to say hello to the ladies, who—bless them—hadn’t let a little thing like a massive power outage deter their Bible study. Thank goodness for those big windows in the fellowship hall lighting their way. I double-checked the light switches, then headed home to grab my book and prep for my own study group.

Walking in the door, I found the wifey making the most of her downtime too—folding towels and tidying up. And then, just like that, zap. The power came back on. Whelp, so much for the forced break. Time to get back to the grind, I told myself.

Since I was already home, I just camped out in my home office. Fired up my gaming PC and hopped right back into video editing mode. Thank God for cloud-based software, right? Still, that early afternoon detour was kinda nice. It made the day interesting and gave my brain a few minutes to play hooky.

So, I don’t know who or what to thank for popping that transformer, but it forced a tiny, much-needed diversion. And hey, shout out to the REA linemen. They were on it and got the juice flowing again fast. Kudos to those guys.

Anywho… I’m incredibly grateful for today's little forced break. That, and a whole bunch of other things: square hamburger patties for tonight’s supper, getting cuddles from the mutts, hitting the 80s in October, the gal on the phone today from the Minneapolis VA who actually knows where Comfrey is (how?! I have no idea), and the ladies at church keeping in the Word by window-light, and so, so much more.

What are you thankful for today? Let me hear your strangest one!