No matter how bad things are, there's always somebody who has a worse problem than you. And sometimes, it's not even a horribly worse problem. It can be a garden variety one, and you can still be mighty glad you don't have it.

For instance, I was talking to someone on the phone the other day who warned me that she might have a little difficulty hearing me....

"I know this sounds stupid, but I had really bad impacted earwax. I couldn't hear a thing out of that ear, and it scared me. It took him forever to get it out of there. It was awful!"

"Oh, I'm aware that earwax can be a really big problem. My Dad has it really bad, and it's very hard on him."

"Is he a basset hound?" the woman asked.

"Excuse- Oh! No- MY DAD has ear wax!" I repeated a little more loudly.

"I'm sorry, I thought you said, your dog...and the only other person I knew with ear wax as bad as mine was a basset hound." She paused. "Maybe I'll make another appointment about this. I'm not sure he got it all the last time."

I thought about telling her that my Dad was more of a German Shepherd type, but I didn't think that would be the most helpful comment under the circumstances.