Steamroller Days...

I am getting so aggravated! You can't go anywhere in my little town right now without encountering road work....I'm talking serious, tear it all up and put it back down road work...the kind with flagmen, and police cars - heavy machinery and miles of orange cones. I know that I should be grateful that we are getting these municipal improvements (especially considering that in some places, grass was growing in the road in such thick patches that it was, if not mower worthy, at least deserving of some weed whacker action), but it is putting a serious hitch in my giddy up! Stop and wait, creep along, stop and wait some more....now, I am a very patient woman, but 17 minutes to go a mile and a half is a little excessive when you're just trying to get home from the grocery store. It's been a real mess, and seems to be taking forever. This morning, I got caught up in one of those lines, and as I was watching the men work, the machines belching steam, and some noxious looking stuff spewing forth from a hose attachment, I was struck by how life is like road construction....I know that mine has been a pretty close parallel in the last few years. Rough patches, things destroyed - torn apart, pressed down and feeling the heat (Trust me when I say that there have been many days in the last 4 years when I have felt like I had been run over by a steamroller...) - praying, hoping, waiting for that day when everything is smooth and fresh, and the going becomes easy and unobstructed once again. During this bout of melancholy introspection (possibly otherwise known as Mid Life Crisis), I have seriously doubted the return of such days. We are coming up on the 4th anniversary of what I lovingly  refer to as "the day our life started going to Hell in a Handbasket....". October 3rd, 2008, when my widowed StepMother came to spend the night, so I could take her to the Doctor....she left a year later, and in dealing with her Physical and Emotional illnesses, I almost lost my mind - I did loose my sense of self, and it was a hard fought battle to reclaim it. Just a couple of months into her living with us, we found out that John would loose his job due to restructuring. He has been unemployed or seriously underemployed ever since, and in this last year he and I have worked up to 3 jobs each, as we try to keep our heads above water. There will be no retirement for us now, and I sometimes try to envision what kind of jobs we will be able to do in our old age (I am S.O.L. as far as my retirement plan B goes, since WalMart has done away with their greeters!). I know that we are not alone in this....that, in fact, there are people in the same boat all over this country....Slowly, this life has become the new normal, and while I am not constantly panicked like I was in the early days, I am tired - tired of trying to keep all the balls in the air....so I would just like to throw this out to the Universe - my message is this: "I am ready for the road work to be finished - I would like to drive on a nice, smooth, easy going road for awhile, and if it's not too much to ask - please remove the steamrollers - I'm weary of their pressure filled heat." Until such a time as my personal roadwork is completed, I will have to content myself with the knowledge that my town's roads will soon be shiny new - giving me hope that if the D.O.T. can get things back on track, then surely my G.O.D. will carry me through my rough patch - setting me down on a shiny new road - where the going is smoother and easier than it is today...