LIFE'S LITTLE MISHAPS

The weeks go by so quickly. I just realized that I missed my Thursday deadline. I've been trying to write every Thursday. It's now Friday night and I have no idea what I'm going to say. Throughout the week, I try to remember things I experienced or things people said so I can use that material in my blog. The only thing that comes to mind at the moment is those little mishaps that bring so much interest to life. You know those things we do that are annoying at the time but we laugh about later. My day was filled with those, including one I can't laugh about.

First of all, I almost hit a car that pulled out in front of me in Halifax. That's the one I can't laugh about. I must have come within an inch of that car when the driver pulled out of his parking space and into my path, forcing me to come down hard on my brakes. I really didn't think I could stop in time and was just waiting for the sound of crunching metal. Fortunately that sound never came, but I was ticked and I wanted to give the guy a piece of my mind, but then I remembered the times that I did stupid things while driving and decided to forgive him.

Then I tried to use a Giant coupon at the Weis store. The cashier said, "This one isn't going to work" and handed it back. She laughed with me and said she did the same thing once or twice. This was after I had spent an hour pushing one of those annoying carts that are so hard to maneuver. The wheels were stuck or something wasn't right because I couldn't push the thing to the left without lifting the back wheels and sliding them to the right. I remember thinking when I grabbed it, "I hope this isn't one of those stupid carts you can't push."

As I wobbled my groceries to the car, a runaway can of Ravioli escaped from the cart's undershelf. Somehow it ended up following me across the parking lot like a well-healed puppy. I turned around and scooped it up, hoping no one had noticed. At least it was a can and not a jar. Last week I almost popped a tire at the Wal Mart parking lot when I nearly drove over a broken jar of spaghetti sauce. It wasn't mine.

That reminds me of another grocery mishap someone told me about years ago. I can't remember who it was, but she placed a gallon of milk on the roof of her car so she would have her hands free to unlock the door. Then she drove off with the milk riding on the roof. When she got home, she was certain she had bought a gallon of milk. A few hours later it hit her what she had done and she could only wonder how far the milk had traveled before exploding onto the ground. And worse yet, who might have seen it? How many people would be asking if the milk made it home safely?

It's amazing how many mishaps a person can have in one day. My ravioli wasn't the only runaway item I dealt with today. I nearly hit an empty garbage can as the wind rolled it across the street. Then I drove over the curb at the Burger King drive-thru. Maybe that was God telling me I shouldn't be eating the ice cream cone I ordered.

When I finally got my groceries home, I was glad to be back in my warm house and out of the bitter cold wind. My husband made me a cup of coffee and I hoped my mishaps were finished for one day. But as I'm typing this, he told me that he found that container of tomatoes I was looking for. I knew I had bought two tubs of baby tomatoes but one had mysteriously disappeared. He found it in the bag I had just stuffed with empty grocery bags. Minutes later, my daughter said, "And we found a can of chicken bouillon in there too."

There must have been something in the air today, because my son just told me he locked his keys in his car at the gas station. Well I've done that too, with a toddler in the back seat and the windows up on one of the hottest days of the year. After calling for help, I remembered the spare key I had wired under the back of my car. That messed-up day cost me $40 to pay the guy that drove twenty miles to help me. Later I realized I had Triple A and could have gotten help for free. Some mishaps are just more mishappy than others as they seem to come in ever-worsening layers.

I'm hoping my layers are complete for one day, but it's only 8:oo. And now my daughter's mad at me for spending so much time at the computer instead of quality time with her. I think I'll go to bed early tonight. How much trouble can I get into while sleeping? Maybe a day like this will just spill over into my dreams. Oh well, there's always tomorrow. Tomorrow I can start over and have a good laugh about today. If nothing else, the day was quite entertaining, especially for the customers at Burger King who saw me drive over the curb. And it gave me something to write about. God can take even our mistakes and use them for good. That's why we shouldn't let those little mishaps bother us. They entertain, they make us laugh, and they keep us humble. I'm learning to embrace my mishaps. How boring the day would have been without them.