“If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you’ve got a problem. Everything else is inconvenience.” Robert Fulghum
“Samson! Riley!” I call them from their morning constitution outside in the backyard. Usually these two dogs immediately come running looking for their breakfast. But this morning no dogs come running to the patio door. I open the front door and call their names: no dogs. My grandson immediately opens the closet door and says, “Grandma’s Boots”. Yesterday when the plumber came I had kept both of the dogs in the garage and when I went to get them they weren’t inside but they had left a large green garbage bag strewn with its contents on the garage floor. Jackson saw me pull on my boots to call them – they were just along the side of the house and of course I needed to clean up the mess. Anyways, he has assumed I need them again but I am reluctant to go outside since I have my two- year old grandson with me. Reluctantly, I did put on my boots, stood outside on the sidewalk and shouted their names. In the meantime, Jackson opens the door and stands on the front step calling, “Grandma”! Does this sound like an adult who has everything under control? I called my daughter who was at work and she said that she would come and drive around our area trying to find them. However, just as she said that, who comes charging across the street but my little dog Riley? This actually unsettled me even more since Riley follows Samson everywhere, and I am worried that something has happened to my kids’ Australian Shepherd Cross.
Rather than wait for my daughter, I decided I didn’t want to lose any more time and I would just have to put Jackson’s coat and boots on and we would make a quick drive around the area. I had just gotten him inside the car and strapped into his car seat when I hear Riley barking. I quickly opened the garage door suspecting Samson’s return. Sure enough the lost was now found. I called Kristen who was already just about at my place, she returned to work, I got Jackson back in the house, and I made Samson sit in the garage until I got our coats off. Then I got a cloth to wipe down Samson’s muddy feet – which came more from being in the garage than from being outside!! Of course, they immediately wanted to go outside again but I can’t’t let them since I learned through this episode that our gate is broken!
To continue with this morning’s mishaps, I thought I should put some food in a crockpot since I knew from all of my symptoms that this would be the strongest part of my day – which wasn’t too encouraging! As I washed some of the dishes, I realized that I had no hot water. I guess this problem started after the plumber came to replace our old dishwasher. My observation skills were apparently at a bare minimum when I used the water last night since I was merely “going through the motions” as I coped with a migraine and some other complaints.
These past two weeks when my grandson comes to visit, he looks at me rather oddly when I tell him I have to go to the garage when I am looking for some food item. Yes, two weeks ago the compressor on our fridge died and the service man advised us to purchase a new fridge. My husband quickly did some research and ordered a fridge but we have had to wait for its delivery! I have a small beverage fridge in the basement, so I get my exercise trying to remember if I have a certain ingredient in this basement fridge or out in the garage. This morning I brought in some fresh carrots from the garage to put in the crock -pot to discover that they had become frozen carrots.
All of these things I have described are just small inconveniences,. They just require a little more expenditure of energy and they frustrate me since I don’t have any extra reserves of energy to use. However, as I sit here watching Finding Nemo with my beautiful grandson and me wrapped together in a blanket and he looks up at me making comments about the movie, even though I sit here with symptoms I wish would disappear, I am content. And as I sit here snuggled beside Jackson, I think about how most of us are inclined to complain when minor inconveniences occur – mainly because we forget that is what they are: they are not serious problems, just inconveniences. Just like Robert Fulghum says, “ If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you’ve got a problem. Everything else is inconvenience.”