It was raining when I went to bed last night and I woke up to snow on the ground. That meant the temperature dropped below freezing overnight, which meant that my car (which was parked in the driveway) had a thin layer of ice on it when I needed to drive somewhere this afternoon.
I needed to get the ice scraper out of the garage, then clear the ice off the windshield and windows so I could see, all the while thinking that I was probably going to be late for my appointment. I really would have appreciated not having to deal with that kind of inconvenience.
But go back about 25 years and I would have been thrilled for that kind of inconvenience. The epileptic seizures I was having at the time involved an involuntary loss of consciousness, so my driver’s license was suspended indefinitely. If I needed to run an errand, I had to ask for a ride. If I wanted to travel somewhere, same deal. And that says nothing about the 20-mile drive to and from law school most weekdays.
That created some serious problems. I sat in the passenger seat with my parents, my brothers, some of my classmates… it was both frustrating and embarrassing. I was in my mid 20s and basically stuck at home unless someone else went out of their way to do me a favor. Today, I was scraping ice off a car that I could drive on my own. Compared to back then, I truly felt blessed to be dealing with such a minor inconvenience.