Not the Bucket List. The List of Stupid-Things-I’ve-Done-In-My-Life-Because-I-Was-Too-Proud-to-Ask-for-Help. I bought a new bed last week. It was on sale. A great deal and super-comfy. But I paid for it before I said, “You do deliver to our neighborhood, don’t you?” Why did I say it that way? Why didn’t I just say, “Tuesday will be good for delivery.” ? The clerk might have felt sorry for me and agreed to send her crew one hour away into the middle of nowhere to deliver my clearance rack mattress and box springs. But nooooooooo. I gave her an out. And she took it.
So, after work this Saturday, I was determined to bring home my treasure. My husband had a severe migraine. Point Number One: I could have waited for a day when he was well. First, I tried to rent a small U-Haul, but the computer kept charging me 79 cents per mile instead of 7! I gave up. Point Number Two: I should have called the company back and clarified.
Instead, I went home and got our short bed pickup with an attached tool box taking up one third of said space. And off I went on a glorious fall day. The sun was shining for the first time all week, the trees were gorgeous, and I felt empowered. Then I had a long, delicious lunch with Serenity Beth and even took time to watch her boys jump in leaves and climb trees. Ahhhhhh. Eventually, I strolled to the truck and went on about my errands.
After I hit Wal-Mart and the grocery store, I pulled up to collect my bed. A boy came out to load it, assisted by his grandmother. He was skeptical of my pick-up. “This is a big bed,” he told me. Point Number Three: I should have listened.
I was only two miles out of town when the load began to shift. I was driving twenty miles an hour, and still the wind was catching the mattress and flipping it up. I pulled off on a dirt road and examined the situation. Then I did the first sensible thing I’d done all day. I called my husband. Without even seeing the situation, he understood exactly what was wrong with the load and exactly how I needed to reload it to fix the problem. He was 45 minutes away and the sunny day was beginning to threaten with clouds.
Instead of calling one of the dozen able-bodied male friends I have in town, I panicked. I called Serenity and ask her to bundle up the grandsons and come help me. She looked like the cavalry coming over that hill in her sporty car and her high heeled shoes. And we did it! We rearranged the load. W strapped it down with a dozen strong cords brilliantly supplied by my husband who believes if one if good two is better.
I still drove 40 miles an hour and didn’t make it home before dark. But I made it. And the bed is magnificent.
Point Number Four: I should have taken that bathroom break before I ran out of small towns.
Oh Kathy! So sorry it was a rough situation for you. So glad you got home safely and I’m glad you got a new bed!
If there’s such a thing as the high-heeled cavalry, sign me up. And I love how you can see Jake in this picture back by the tree he preferred. He’s an adorable little PILL.
Thing I love #2: How it seems like I knew what I was doing in this story.
That is something I would completely do. Oh, well. Hindsight is 20/20. I am glad it all turned out well in the end. I did not even notice Jake the first time I saw this picture. Now that I know he is there it is twice as adorable!
The thing that made me laugh the hardest is the line that says, “a boy came out to load it, assisted by his grandmother.” The picture in my head cracks me up!
I love your “I can do it” attitude, even if it did get a little crazy for a while there. I bet the bed has been worth the trip!
I made an unwilling and unintentional entry to that List-of-stupid-things when Jon and I were buying two pieces of paneling and subsequently tying them to the roof rack on his Honda Pilot. A man saw us struggling to tie it down quickly because Jon needed to get home for another appointment. I rejected his help kindly (?) and made the last knot tight before taking off. Less than half way there the whole load came off and landed on the road. In the Lord’s mercy, the large break in the pegboard panel caused no problem when we installed it, but in order to get it home we had to slip all the panels into the Pilot and Jadee had to slouch down in the back seat underneath the paneling. We couldn’t close the back gate because the paneling was too long, so I had to hold on tight to the front end of those sloping panels while we drove very slowly to the house. Looking back, I realize that I probably rejected the help of an angel sent from God because Jadee and Jon had promised to do the nursery at their Saturday Night Service, and only Jadee was able to go, and that without a shower. To add to the story, the paneling we installed had to be removed later anyway when the repairmen who fixed the termite damage we were covering fixed what Jon and his dad both agreed, “Oh, we can handle that! No problem!”
I could probably fill a book with my “Stupid-things-I-have-done-because-I-refused-to-ask-for-help.” More pathetically, I will probably still be adding pages on the day the funeral home picks up my exhausted body.
Paul – I am cracking up!!! And, I hope I go to Heaven first, because it will be terrible if I’m standing at your casket laughing at the memory of this comment!!
Kathy,
These are the kinds of things that my husband sees all the time; amatures! Though he and I have both “lost our loads” and always in the middle of the busiest intersections. Humility abounds when you are holding up traffic because the sheets of siding and bucket of paint you had in the back of the truck slid off the back, and your a woman by yourself who couldn’t pick up a 4 ft. by 8 ft sheet of siding by yourself if your life depended on it. Nice men stop thier cars, also in middle of said intersection, or next to curb, run to your aid, load you back up and send you on your way while you are all the time profusly apoligizing resembling Meg Ryan in “You’ve Got Mail”……………..”I’m sorry, I’m soo soo sorry, Please forgive me, thank you so much………..” and on and on it goes till your in the truck and driven off. All I can say is “Been there, done that!” So relieved it came out well for you, and you actually had somewhere to lie down and rest afterward as you recalled it.
I can pretty much imagine Roger shaking his head at me 🙂 And I’m so glad you’ve done the same thing!