No such thing

What I have been craving for in the last few years is this: normality.

It seems that the whole world is spinning so fast, and even my little part of the world is rotating at a speed I can't seem to follow for very much longer.

Let me rant a bit...

Over one year ago, the company I work for moved to a bigger city (in the hope of more customers and orders). The move was costly, and the benefit was small. As a bigger customer had relocated a lot of their staff to places outside Germany, the company's proceeds decreased badly. One office employee had to leave. Things didn't get much better, and so the boss warned us that he might have to close down business effective end of the year, by word of mouth. In Germany, the law states that if you worked for a company for over 8 years, your dismissal shall be handed to you in written form three months in advance. Thus, I was surprised when the boss told me at the end of November, that I would have to leave. Just to ask me, three days later, if I might agree to work a few hours short. Now, my working time (and my salary) is two thirds of that in the last years. But the work is still the same. Or even more, because my remaining colleague is also on short hours, and therefore, both of us have to do whatever comes up (which is not a new thing, only that it's even more multitasking in less time - which is exhausting).

In the meantime, we had a new central-heating boiler installed (which went fast as lightning compared with all the investigation that we had to do beforehand to find out what was the best for us, including the consideration of having solar heating installed on the roof, which we decided against because that would have more than doubled the costs... So sorry that environmental protection is still so costly).

A hail storm damaged a plexiglass roof and we had to replace it. That was not a financial problem, because the insurance covered that, but it took some time because the storm had damaged quite a lot of roofs, shutters and (sic!) solar heating panels. And the workman was a dumbhead, too. I had the feeling that I had more of a clue according to that work than him. Not to talk about common sense.

In August, our cat tore almost any tendon in her right hind foot. The surgery was quite expensive, she had to stay inside for almost three months and she looked a sight... They had locked the tendons in position with metal pins, right through the foot; the pins were adjusted and fixed on the outside by some plastic material that made her knock at almost anything she went by. It was quite like a peg leg...
Surprisingly she learned to mount the stairs very quickly.
Fortunately, she's alive and kicking and the only thing one might notice is that her right hind foot is slightly broader than the left one.

Something in the car broke. The guarantee was accepted, but the garage thought they'd send us bills anyway. We had to employ a lawyer to stop them.

My best female friend got divorced.

My Granny died.

My stepfather-in-law died.

Somehow all of that involved a lot of telephone calls, organization and driving around.

And somehow, not even the vacations we took could make me relax.

And especially not the county fair which lasted for ten days, with pavillions nearby where they had a disco every night until three or four in the morning (I usually get up at 05:45 a. m.) (Yes, earplugs did work. They worked so well that I almost slept through on the first morning, so I gave in on those... I walked about like a Zombie. Thankfully, there was a public holiday in that week.)

There's no such thing as normal life. If there ever was.