“I got a screw in my tire and my cat’s at the vet.”

Sounds like it could be the opening line of a country song, no? Alas, it’s my life today. Sigh.

After two new front tires on Friday, I spotted a screw last night in one of my larger rear tires. The place where I got them — including a certificate for repair/refund/replacement for each — of course isn’t open on Sundays, so I went to Sears to see if it was repairable.

No dice. My luck. I’d have been down to pay for a patch, but not a new tire — especially if I didn’t need to.

All that was left to do was keep my fingers crossed, leave the screw in the tire and hope it keeps any leaking at bay, drive as little as possible and get back to the place where I bought them at my earliest convenience. Which means tomorrow.

In the meantime, my old cat — an indoor/outdoor guy who does his own thing — decided today was his day to be über affectionate with me. The last time he pulled his lovey-dovey antics, he was in need of vet care due to a stinky, massive abscess in his neck, a telltale sign of a cat fight that he lost. Today, he sidled up to me on the couch, yawned, and his breath would’ve knocked me over had I not already been sitting down. What now? Another abscess, another bill? We shall see. Due for his annual checkup anyway, I whisked him off to the vet, returned a few hours later and plunked down a pretty penny to being him home.

I realized the other day that Christmas is about three months away, and I am thankful to soon be turning the page and moving on from 2013. I’ve hemorrhaged more than my share of cash this year, and it’s getting a wee bit old. The silver lining? I have pets that are pretty kickass, an awesome vet that I feel great about taking them to, and I spotted the screw in my tire instead of obliviously driving around on it and potentially having a big issue on my hands.

Sometimes zooming out helps us to put things back into proper perspective, because the more we focus on those things that are right in front of us, the less we’ll see the big picture. It can be a challenging task, particularly when our attention is dedicated to fixing those things staring back at us. What to do? Raise a glass with me, y’all — its toast-time:

Though life may trip us up at times and grow to staggering heights, here’s to focusing on what we can change, but always remembering to zoom out, breathe, and keep things in balance at the end of the day.