Early this morning we had some plumbing work completed. The plumber (who's done a lot of work for us) had planned to finish the job two days ago, but ran out of time. And then there was a communication mix-up, so he didn't finish yesterday. The result was that Patty couldn't use her shower this morning. (We have three showers in the house, so this was far from an imposition.)

But this morning the plumber was racing around, extremely anxious, apologizing profusely for the delay, until I finally stopped him and said, "You know what? I nearly died this past October. All these things you're worrying about? They don't matter."

He said, "Thank you for your kindness," and he relaxed a little bit. I hope he'll be more relaxed during the rest of the day.