“My mother told me there’d be days like this…but she never said how many!” This is a saying my mom has said all my life. It took me about 3 decades before I figured out what it meant. It sure is true of whatever kind of day you’re having. My mom also always told me “the same thing never happens twice”. I’ve found this to be true too. You can’t predict what’s going to happen in life. Even if you prepare for every inevitability or are going by past experiences, the universe will throw a monkey wrench into things. Like your car may break down more than once but it will be a different part or on a different stretch of road or time of day, etc. It seems to happen for the sole reason of keeping us off balance! No, not really. It is probably just random accidents that we like to read more into. That’s why you can live into your 90’s and still get thrown off by things that happen since they’ve never happened before. If they had, you’d know how to handle them.
Vintage Salt & Pepper
What happened to me today is a case in point. I was filling my salt and pepper shakers. A task that isn’t hard or really even time consuming (usually) but I still manage to put it off. I have a lovely LARGE set of ceramic shakers made to look like a basket weave in pastel pink & blue colors. It is one of the few things I purchased on our last trip to California about 14 years ago. I like them for sentimental reasons and because they’re big enough that I don’t have to fill them all the time. I put postal tape over the holes and flip them over. The stopper is rubber and VERY tight fitting. I have to use a needle nosed pliers to get it in and out. I filled the pepper and the salt. I’ve replaced the plug in the pepper with no problem. Then I am trying to get the stopper in the salt and have one side in but it won’t go in. I move the pliers to the other side and push in and WHOOPS! the plug is now all the way through the hole and laying on top of the salt. The hole is too small to see inside and I now have no plug for the salt. I tried fishing around in there with the pliers hoping by some miracle I’d be able to retrieve it. It’s still sitting upside down so it doesn’t spill out. I’ve spent way more time trying to figure out a solution to this ridiculously SMALL problem. I’ve thought of dumping all the salt out and trying to shake the stopper to the center hole and try to grab it. Whatever I dump the salt into, it has to be either put back in this one or another shaker. The ironic thing is I used to collect salt and pepper shakers! I sold most of them and might have one set somewhere if I look hard.
So I was thinking how I’ve never had this happen before. I hadn’t even THOUGHT of it happening. I had been worried about the stopper tearing from being handled by the pliers and I wouldn’t be able to find a replacement. I then started thinking about all the things that COULD happen in the future. Like taking the stopper out and dropping it and one of the dogs grabbing it and chewing it up or swallowing it. No, I don’t have too much time on my hands to think up this stuff. It’s just how my mind works. Everything is a tangent that makes me think of something else.
Mounted pheasant
So I don’t end this on an unpleasant note, I’ve got to tell you about the pheasant mount we got at an estate sale last Friday. It started at 9 am but we didn’t feel like it so we got over there about 12:30 pm. There was really only one thing we had seen in the pictures that we wanted and it was the stuffed pheasant. By a bizarre stroke of luck, it was still there 4 1/2 hours later. It was priced at $35 and I told hubby if he wanted it, it would be his birthday present a few weeks early. That way it would be something memorable and also a gift he really wanted! When we got home and started looking them up online, they sell anywhere from $85 up and to have one taxidermied/ mounted would be $125 or more. It was clean, not dusty and no smell. It looked to be new. Looking it over, we fell in love with it and hung it on the wall like it’s flying upwards since it already had a hook on it. I’d never seen one up close or touched one. There are several different types, shapes, colors and sizes of feathers! It’s also softer than you might imagine. The surprising thing is the dogs have no interest in it. Elvis looked at it but that was all. I’m sure it’s because it has no scent left.
Stuffed pheasant
Pheasant up close and personal
While I was writing this, hubby came home and I told him of my salt dilemna. He was trying to find a plug that would fit and they were too small. Then I thought of using a clean, disposable earplug! It worked like a charm. No one has to know that there’s a plug floating around inside with the salt. (Except everyone who reads this blog post!) He told me to be sure not to push the earplug in with the salt next time I fill it…. He also said “If that’s the only thing that goes wrong today, we’re doing pretty good”! 😉
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I love the creative solution!
Thanks! Desperate times call for desperate measures. 🙂