(Submitted by Tipper from The Blind Pig And The Acorn)

Paul’s recent posts detailing the troubles he’s encountered while gathering his corn, made me think of the ’sayings’ we tell one another to commiserate with our problems. You know things like-Its Murphy’s Law what ever can go wrong will go wrong-If it weren’t for bad luck I’d have no luck at all-When it rains it pours-A day late and a dollar short.

I was also reminded of a story Pap told me. Back in the day when he was a small child living in Appalachia, logging was a huge industry. His father, Wade, was a woodcutter-in later years called a pulpwood cutter. Wade and his partner Virgil used a cross cut saw to cut timber. They finally worked out enough money to buy themselves a new fangeled chainsaw-it cost $200.00. In those days most mountain families never had more than 40 or 50 dollars cash in an entire year-so you can imagine how nervous buying the saw made both families-especially the wives. Well Murphy’s law was at work-the day they bought it Virgil took it home with him for the night. While the chainsaw was sitting on the porch-lightning struck it-totally blowing the thing up. Pap says he can still remember how upset all the grown ups were-none more so than Wade and Virgil cause they had staked their families well fair on that blasted saw. Wade and Virgil did the only thing they could do-they returned to the store were they purchased the saw in hopes that it might be salvaged somehow or at least that they could sell the parts. A ray of sunshine began to shine on the misfortune-turns out when they bought the saw they also bought insurance on it. Wade and Virgil got a brand new saw and headed for the woods. I’m betting they didn’t leave it on the porch for a long time to come.

I’m hoping a ray of sunshine brightens up Paul’s cornfields too.