Demolition days are exciting! They mark the start of a project! The removal of the ‘problem’ and the beginning of the ‘solution’. Except when the demolition just happens…it is not planned…then it is just a… Bad British Word. Such was our reality a few days ago and now that tempers are cooler it is probably safe to tell the tale.
It started with me… (I hate that). A house fly was annoying me and our guest at the breakfast table, so I picked up My Loving Spouse’s cap and swatted it. Not only did I NOT kill the pesky fly, but the metal bit on the cap cracked the 100 year old glass in the window. NO!!!! I want a do over, as I thought to myself… Bad British Word!!!
Number Two and The Teen have been sharing a car and the sharing of filling the gas tank. This has not gone real well. So when we had the opportunity to pick up an inexpensive/cheap auto, we jumped at it. It is a manual…a stick…clutch…gas…all that stuff…stalling etc. Number Two needed to learn to drive a stick. Being a good mother and still suffering from the whole learning to drive a clutch nightmare I experienced with my father, I carefully explained to him how it all worked. I was the model of a patient and loving teacher (of course this was all handled at the breakfast table.) Later when Number Two was behind the wheel, he said to My Loving Spouse, “I really think Mom is over exaggerating the difficulty of all this.” He then popped the clutch, ‘drove’ (and I use the term lightly) in reverse across the yard running over a fence post ending up high centered over a plumbing box with one wheel spinning. Luckily it was a ‘fancy’ plastic fence post, so he wasn’t hurt nor was the car….the fence post however, is not looking too good.
With all the ‘excitement’ of cars with clutches being driven about, My Loving Spouse”s truck got parked where it had never been before and just maybe a tad too close to The Teen’s car. So needless to say, she left for church group after backing into the truck, rounding out the day with three demos in one day…..(Bad British Word).
Stuff just happens. Figuring out whose ‘fault’ it is…seldom seems helpful…I guess the answer is just learn from it and try to do it differently…better…let the fly live or wait for it to land on something more solid before whacking it. Driving cars…stuff always happens…My Loving Spouse knew that the best part was that no one got hurt…the next day things were better…and in any case if need be I can look back and say…”Who in the world taught these two to drive anyway?” and he will say….(Bad British Word).
(Insert cute puppy picture here)
