It wasn’t a very good morning. It all started with the coffee. I have been making the coffee every morning
for almost thirty years, and the measuring has been the same for all of them: six measures of coffee and twelve cups of
water. Today I couldn’t scoop out six
measures of coffee without getting distracted and having to start over.......and
that was just the beginning!
I left the
house at the usual time to go to work.
As I was about to enter my car, I noticed that some neighbors had put
their recycling on the curb for pickup.
I wondered why the pickup was going to be on Tuesday morning this week
instead of Wednesday. Then I remembered
that, although this was indeed the second workday of the week, It was
Wednesday, not Tuesday, and the recycling needed to be put out. Darn those Monday holidays!
So I put my
lunch bag and water jug on the roof of the car, grabbed the keys out of my
pocket, unlocked the car door and placed all (or so I thought) of my belongings
in the car and proceeded to do my Wednesday morning duty. After the deed was done, I got in the car and
was on my merry way. I noticed a
contractor’s van on the corner of Sixth and Limestone Streets with two people in
it. I made a left at that intersection
and decided it was time for a sip of water from my jug. When I went to grab it from its usual home in
the cup holder, it was gone. My lunch
bag was where it was supposed to be, but the jug was definitely missing. Oh well,
I thought, I can always buy a bottle of
water at school.
Then it occurred to me that I usually
put my stuff in my car and then lock the house from the outside, so with the
recycling debacle, I was sure that I had forgotten to lock the house at
all. That settled it…I needed to turn
around, go home and check the house and, as long as I was home, find my water
jug.
On my way home,
I passed a coworker, and I knew that I would be asked about my traveling toward
home when I should have been going toward the school. When I got home, I discovered that the house was unlocked, so I went in and looked
for the water, but it was nowhere to be found.
I locked the door, perused the front porch for the jug, and
disappointedly set out on my second attempt at getting to work.
I drove two blocks
when I noticed something in the street on the corner of Sixth and Bridge
Streets. It was my green jug of
water! I stopped, got out of my car,
picked it up, and hoped beyond hope that no one was watching. Of course, within seconds, that contractor’s
van passed and its two occupants waved and smiled and I waved and smiled back, albeit
with a red face.
Of course, when
I got to work, my coworker’s first words were, “What were you rushing home
about?” As usual, my story made for
great morning fodder in the office.
The morals of this story are:
1. Drive
safely. I do. In fact, I drove two blocks this morning with
a jug of water on my roof!
2. Remember
to recycle. An overflowing recycling
receptacle is ugly, unsanitary, and annoying.
By the time I get home, my recycling bin will be as empty as my brain is
becoming, and I’ll be content.
3. Remember
to smile. "A smile is a curve that sets
everything straight." ~Phyllis Diller~ …and
if one person can smile at my antics, maybe it won’t be such a bad day after
all.
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