Surviving a Rollercoaster of a Day: Unexpected Hurdles and Heart-Pounding Moments

I did not have a good day today. I, or did I? That's what we're gonna talk about.

I, had a special thing at my church, and they wanted me to provide some music, and it was kind of a last-minute thing. And so I talked with, you know, the church lady, She said, can you just find instrumental music on the internet? And I was like, sure. I got it on my phone. So I found that problem solved. Great.

I just gotta be able to to plug my phone into the sound system. And I'm like, okay, that's not a big deal. And I'm I know I have at least 3 of these cables that are basically a headphone jack on one end and what is known as an RCA jack on the other. I've got an adapter that'll take the RCA jack, turn it into a quarter inch, it'll plug right into the sound system.

But I think about it. I'm like, okay. I think I know where those cables are. And, just in case, I'm gonna bring my JBL Bluetooth because that'll blow everybody out of the church if needed. Great.

And then later find out, oh, you're gonna read some scripture. Not a problem. Go to bible.com, get the scripture, copy and paste it into, a Google doc printed out at like 14 16 fonts. So I have a clue about what I'm reading. All I need is that cable.

And, oh, and it dawns on me. Oh, glad you remember that. My phone has one of those lightning ports. So I'm gonna have to find my other cable that converts the lightning port to, you know, what we'd call a headphone jack. Okay. I know I have, again, probably 3 of those. Just gotta find the cables. That's all. You know what? I've got a cabinet behind me if you ever see my live video stuff. I got all the cables in there. It's gotta be in there. pull all the cables out. And I'm here to tell you. I know I have at least 3 of the RCA cable and 3 of the little converters. cannot find the RCA jack. And I was like, alright. I even go into the basement. Nope. And then, I saw my toolbox from when I was playing in bars, and that thing had every kind of converter on it imaginable. Nope.

And I was like, well, I was gonna go to Walmart to get this fruit plate. I'm sure they have this headphone to RCA cable in the electronic section, and then we'll be good to go. Great. Except, oh, wait. Don't forget. gotta have that converter  to go from lightning to a headphone jack. And I know it's somewhere on my desk here. Right? And I know where they are. It's gotta be. I've got a horse radio network cup, and I cannot find it for the life of me, but I know it has a couple of different converters in it. 

So we're going to Walmart. Got it. Gotta get a fruit plate. Gotta get an RCA cable and gotta get an Apple lightning converter kit. Got it. Gotta get there before 5. And so I'm, oh, I don't know, 30% of the way to the church. I look over and I'm like, crap. I forgot the large print scripture that I printed out. And it dawns on me. Well, you could always read it off your phone. Right? Is that gonna work?

Alright. Hold on. I'll turn around. I'll go back. I got time. The thing doesn't start till 5. Go back. you know, launch the umbrella, get into the house, get the paper, come back out, put up the umbrella, get in the car, take the umbrella down. Okay. Now we gotta get to Walmart. We gotta get there quick. and it is raining hard. And so I get to Walmart. Luckily, got, like, a 5th space in line, so I don't have to go that far in Walmart, but Walmart's drainage is, like, I might as well have taken a canoe to get into Walmart.

I go in, luckily, two fruit plates right there, grab them, and, and right now it's just to get those cables. So I go over. I'm running over almost running down people in Walmart and, get to the electronic section. And I'm looking around, and I don't see that stereo to RCA cable. And I know I've seen them in Walmart before, but, that might have been a while ago. And I'm like, why wouldn't you have that cable, and I'm like, an RCA cable, you know, like, the ones you would plug into the back of a cassette deck...

And maybe that's why it's not here. Today we just connect to everything via Bluetooth. That's really how you connect most speakers today I'm not connecting a speaker. I gotta get my phone into the sound system. And I was like, there might be an RCA jack at the church already. Maybe.
I'm like, okay. But I still need that converter cable. And it's in one of those cabinets at Walmart you have to get somebody to let you in the cabinet, and there's nobody in sight. Nobody inside. And I was like, I  kind of do another quick run around and make sure there's no RCA. cable Really, there's no RCA cable here? Hold on.

Finally, there's a guy from Walmart, but he's talking to his 2 buddies. I cannot get his attention. and it dawns on me. You know what? We're running out of time. I'm just gonna send my phone into this Bluetooth speaker. It sounds amazing. hits loud. It'll work. Let's get out of here.

So I get up to the line, and I've got my umbrella But what I don't have is my wallet.... Yeah.

This is just one of those days. I forgot the pages. Now I forgot my wallet. This is one of those cases where I am one step ahead of myself and constantly forgetting stuff. So I have one of the awesome Walmart workers, I'm like, hey, I'm gonna leave this here for 2 seconds. I gotta go get my wallet. Go out, get the wallet, come back in, and pay for the fruit because that's all we have at this point.

I go back out to the car. And I'm looking down. I'm like, oh, I don't have much time. I've got a little over a half hour. But I'm close to the church, and it's it's raining even harder. So, I go out of Walmart, start heading the way. I'm thinking, okay, we're just gonna go Bluetooth, put, the fruit stuff in the trunk. We're good to go. And, we're going down. It's a it's a flat road. It's straight. And, We're all cruising along. You know, everybody's wipers are, you know, going spastic. And, somebody must have turned right unexpectedly.

This is one of those roads that pretty much everybody goes straight. And there are all streets, but nobody goes on those. I mean, who lives out here? Who wants to live next to Walmart? Well, somebody did, and nobody was ready for them to slow down and turn right. So you see brake light after brake light after brake light. And I'm thinking, uh-oh, because that person just stopped dead right in front of me. So I'm paying attention, and I slam all my brakes, and I stopped what felt like about 10 inches from hitting this person.

And I'm like, uh-oh, and I look in my rearview mirror, And I'm like, well, this is gonna suck because - and she was a lovely girl - but there was no way she was gonna stop. in time. And I see her start a slide. She didn't really go off the road. I couldn't go off the road because I saw it, and I was if I wasn't 10 inches from the car in front of me, I would just pulled off the road and let her hit the guy in front of me, and I just stood on the break because I'm like, I'm gonna get hit.

And so she smashes into me and I feel the back of my chair whack me upside the head. So I'm like, alright. Good. That'll be some, some good, you know, whiplash or something on my neck tomorrow.  And my left hand punched the dashboard. So I've got a kind of funky bruise on my left, knuckles here, and it's fine. You know what I mean? It's just one of those things.

And it's still raining, cats, and dogs. So I get out and she rolls down her window. Are you okay? She's like, yeah. Are you okay? And I go, yeah. And I look over, and I I'm really expecting, like, my trunk to just be collapsed. and, I look over and it's really not that bad. It looks like somebody took, like, a guy's wallet. You know what I mean? That's, like, a little rectangle. and just smooshed it into my bumper. Like, there is a wallet-sized, I don't know, inch to half-inch deep dent into my car. but nothing's too wild. I saw when I looked at it later that the the fenders on the back might have gotten a little smooshed. Things move forward a little bit. But nothing more than I thought it was gonna be. I really expected to get out and hear the sound of the gas tank. Nothing. Perfectly fine. She was fine.

I said okay. Well, I guess we'll call 911 and have somebody call. We'll make a report. She's like, yeah. That's fine. I go, okay. Great. She's apologizing perfectly. I'm like, really, it's fine. It was rainy out. Not a problem.  I was like, you know what? Cars are replaceable. I'm fine. You're fine. That's great. And I'm near my church. So I I do that whole thing, like, you know, act like a Christian. Let's let's be forgiving here. And I was. I mean, I wasn't happy about it, but it was an accident. That's why they call them, I don't know, accidents.

So I called 911, and they're like, where are you at? And I'm like, I seriously just wanted to go. I'm between Walmart and the church. Come on. You know where I'm at? And, I'm looking around. And I don't know about you, but it if people put their numbers on their houses, they're like, I don't know, 500 feet off the road and it's, you know, a half an inch tall. So finally, I figure out that I'm at such and such East Street, whatever. And they're like, okay, we'll we'll send somebody there. Alright. Great. So we, we kind of pull off the road which you had already done, really.

And, I'm like, so the first thing I did was I called the church because, like, I'm supposed to be playing music in what is now about, you know, 25 minutes. And they're like, okay. So, we might wanna come up with a plan b. Alright. But I'm fine. Yep. I'm fine. Okay. Good. And, I can see where my hand is starting to be a little wonky, but I'm happy that everything's able to move. And, It takes a while for the police to show up. And this poor guy is still standing out in a tray. I thought he was gonna have a smoky bear hat on or something. Nothing. He's just getting drenched. He's trying to write on his little notepaper with a pen. I was like, oh, this is ridiculous. Then, you know, I show him my insurance thing, and my driver's license and, you know, nobody's proteswting anything. It's like, hey. I ran into this guy. You know? And, So he finally leaves. He says, "If you can drive, go ahead and go."

So I'm I'm now headed to the church because The special ceremony starts in about 5 minutes, if that. And I'm about 4 minutes from the church. And I'm like, okay. Well, I hit, like, every red light available, of course. and I'm waiting, and now I'm late. And so, I go to get out of the car. It's still raining. It's not torrential down port anymore, but it's raining hard. So again, I launched the umbrella. I get out of the car. I got my phone because I'm gonna need it. and I throw out my back pocket. And then I hit the button on my key because I gotta get the fruit. Kinda get the fruit out of the back. And I opened up the trunk, and one of the fruit plates is now splattered across the back of my back seat. And my trunk smells very fruity. It's like Mhmm. Pineapple. I'm hungry. We've lost 1, but we've got one that's pretty much okay. It looks like the lid might have gotten a little tilted. And so I'm trying to hold the umbrella with kinda my shoulder and neck as I get the fruit bowl and in one hand, and then try to close the lid on the trunk, I feel I've got my keys. I've got my phone. I turn to go into the church. I'm like, oh, wait. I need the the blue 2 speaker.
Okay. So I turn around, hold the umbrella with my neck kind of again, try to put my fruit in my left hand. As I open up the door, I'm I'm reaching around to grab the, the wireless speaker, which is now falling on the floor because of the wreck. And I was like, oh, okay. So I'm trying to hold all this stuff. And the umbrella goes AWAL. It's like, never mind. I'm out of here.

So I'm just getting drenched on. I get the Bluetooth speaker, and I go to Put the fruit bowl, which is now sopping wet in its plastic in my other hand so I can grab the umbrella, and the fruit ball just goes flying. Like, it, like, slow-mo, you see all the fruit come off off the lid, and you're just like, Ugh, you gotta be kidding me. And sure enough, it lands wrong way, fruit goes everywhere. And I'm like, well, birds, Mister Groundhog, enjoy the buffet. So I'm like, well, if I know it's a church and there's that famous scripture. I think it's in the new testament where 2 or more gathered, there will be casseroles. And I we're gonna be fine.

So and at this point, I just wanna get in because the special service is starting and I'm late. And so, I'm thinking to myself, this has been a really crappy day. I can't believe it. You know, I got hit. I just wasted about $20 of fruit. and I couldn't find my stupid cables. I'm gonna have to play this stuff through this Bluetooth speaker. This is just dreadful except for one thing.

That special ceremony at the church that I was gonna be involved with is a funeral. And that funeral was for a guy who was 41 that used to be in my Sunday school. And he was a very entertaining kid. He turned me on to Allison Chains that was the first time I really gave them a shot. And I've known him and his sister. I sit next to his Dad every week. in church. I've known his mom, I've sang with her in choir, and he was in a much worse car accident and didn't make it.

And I say this because yeah. I had some things go bad. but not as bad as the day his parents, his older sister, and his 3 kids were having. So if you're having a bad day, someone else is having a worse one, and try to be grateful for the fact that my car is still drivable and that I didn't get hurt and that I lived to see another day.

His sister read some things and that got me. That got the waterworks going. I can't imagine. I'm very close with my brother, and I can't imagine life without him. And Obviously, this is not about me. I know it's a show called Building a better Dave, but funerals are hard for everyone. But if you're a teacher that wants to help people all the time, they're really it's so weird because you can't help them. And maybe I did help by just by being there. But that's the thing that I was just like, oh, you gotta be kidding me. And they had, all these pictures of him. And then, I think it was 3, 4 weeks ago, I did a sermon and, he was there. And that's the whole thing. I was the whole time moment. He was just there. He was just in that pew. He was just there. Literally, just there. And I did this, sermon, and I had, like, these Christian affirmations. And one of them is you're not defined by your mistakes. And, look, I've made mistakes. You've made mistakes. We've all made mistakes, and he was he was fresh off of some. And he had decided that, he was gonna rededicate himself. to Jesus. And he had kept my list of affirmations. And so it's kinda cool to know that somebody was listening to you.
And I do not know how non-Christians handle funerals. And, the Sunday he was gonna do this public display of, hey, I'm rededicating myself. He was killed the Thursday before. and never got to do that. And when I think about outliving your kids, I I don't know that there's a deeper pain. I don't know. I can only I I, you know, I say I can only imagine, but to be honest with you, I can't. And so that was my main point for today was we all have bad days. We really do. But maybe somewhere, someone's having one even worse. and I do my best to try to live a life of gratitude for what I have and try not to compare myself to others because the Jones has got that new thing and it's shiny. but his parents, his sister, his brother-in-law, the sons. And that's the other one that I was like, oh, jeez.

And it just gives you a different perspective again. not really trying to make this about me, but it it gave me a perspective. His his oldest son is 24. And that's the age I was when my mom died. And I thought I was kind of an adult, which technically I was, But I looked at his son. I was like, oh my god. That kid's a baby. And I was just like, and that's again, the teacher in me wants to go up and go, hey, will be your grief counselor? Let me give you some here are some books, and I'm like, no. No. No. Easy there. but I just let them know I was here. If you need me for anything, don't hesitate to, to reach out.

So on the way to a funeral, I got rear-ended. Not a great day. but it could have been a lot worse. Instead of sitting at the back of the church running the sound system, I could have been sitting in the front row looking at a picture of my son, or my brother, or my dad, So keep that in mind. And, I hope tomorrow's better. Can't get much worse in the motor words of Lennon and McCartney. Take care