In the darkness of my predawn awake time as I struggled to fall back asleep, I heard the creaking of Dave’s closet door; eeeer, eeeer and then the soft mewing of a cat gently letting me know her food bowl was empty and she wanted some service. I’d had a rough night and hadn’t slept well. I wasn’t sleepy when Dave headed up to bed so I stayed up a little longer to let my inner clock unwind a bit more.
As I gathered my iStuff together to recharge it over night, I noticed my phone was missing. Mentally retracing my steps from earlier in the day, I knew I must have left my phone at Glamour Nails that afternoon where I had unabashedly offered a folio of Kasper photos to anyone who would look at them. A quick check on my iPad’s “Find My Phone” app confirmed my suspicion and the little phone icon danced upon the road on the South side of US29. Satisfied that my phone was in safe hands, I went up to bed.
I say I was satisfied that my phone was in safe hands, and my rational self was fine with that but unfortunately, that irrational portion of my being became fixated on the fact that my phone was not in my possession and so, like Gollem yearning for “my precious,” I tossed and turned for a good hour or so before I was actually able to sleep.
This week has been a series of life’s little annoyances starting with the unfamiliar warning light that lit up on my dashboard Monday morning as I drove to the gym. A quick look in my owners’ manual told me that it was my tire pressure warning – a new kind of sensor for me. So,when I got home, I called Dave and tasked the tire issue to him, playing the “it’s a man’s job” card that I had little opportunity to play during his Naval career.
Satisfied that I’d handled the snag in my day, I began to straighten things up in preparation for the annual carpet cleaning on Wednesday, getting all the odds and ends off the floor. I started with my office, since it tends to gather several piles of paper on the floor, all in a sort of order. As I went through a pile of what I thought were change of address notices from the bank following Andy’s move from New Orleans with a brief stop-off here, I discovered the new debit card he’s been waiting for that only the day before I told him I hadn’t seen. So, off I went on my dubious tires to the post office to mail that off tout de suit.
Dave’s quick check at lunchtime revealed that one of my rear tires had substantially lower pressure than the other three. Convinced I’d picked up a nail, we dropped my car off at University Tire and a couple of hours later my suspicions were confirmed. We picked it up after Dave came home from work and I was happy to discover there was no charge for the repair. So that wasn’t so bad.
First thing Tuesday morning, I jumped on the scale for my weekly Weight Watchers weigh-in and for the first time since I started the program in July, I gained a bit. Although I wasn’t surprised, I was disappointed. Last week had been chock full of stuff as well and I did comfort myself with some foods I generally avoid. Determined to get back on track, I continued my sweep through the house, cleaning and preparing for the carpet cleaner.
Dave was going to be gone for a couple of days on a business retreat, so I both got to enjoy the time alone as well as do all the prep work myself, which wasn’t so enjoyable. That evening, after I finished my clean up, I plopped myself on the couch to watch some television but my relaxation ended when I began to hear what sounded like dripping water falling underfoot in the crawl space. It was too late and too dark outside to go look, so I let it go. For a brief moment I fantasized how nice it would be to be able to sleep in on Wednesday morning since Dave would be gone and I had nowhere I had to be. Then I realized that I’d scheduled to above mentioned carpet cleaner to begin at 8:00!
Yesterday the Tidy Guy arrive promptly and began his cleaning. I grabbed my flashlight to go explore the crawl space. Since having it conditioned earlier this summer, it’s not that creepy. In fact it is like a basement for the very short. I didn’t find a leak, but I did find a puddle which let me know there was something going on down there that was beyond my abilities which I’m sure will translate into a dollar sign in the near future. But by lunchtime at least the carpets were clean, the house smelled fresh and my afternoon held nothing but a pedicure and quiet evening until Dave returned (and I discovered my phone had been left behind….)
This morning as I sipped my first cup of coffee, realizing in annoyance that I wouldn’t be able to pick up my phone until I finished at the gym, I was confronted by the early morning talk show scenes of folks in Florida hurriedly loading their families, pets and important belongings into their cars to flee the path of Hurricane Matthew. Although I’ve never had to evacuate, I know all too well the fear that accompanies an oncoming tropical storm as well as the impact of living with its aftermath. Those things are not merely annoyances; they are truly scary.
Life has a way of humbling me like that, of slapping me across the face and saying, “Snap out of it!” Boo hoo. So I misplaced my phone for a few hours, picked up a nail in my tire, mislaid a piece of mail, gained a pound and have to call in a professional to deal with mysterious moisture in my crawl space. These are all easy things to tend to compared to some of the greater challenges of life.
I suppose the real tragedy of a week like this isn’t in the minor annoyances that I’ve dealt with. Instead it is in the distraction from other things I may have overlooked in the process; like listening to a friend, helping someone in need or even in saying a prayer or two. I hope that I will find a new focus as the result of this humbling moment and just deal with the normal stuff of life for what it is and save my annoyance for things that are truly annoying.