Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Little Things



It's the little things that make me happy, also the little things that annoy the hell out of me. For the big things, both harrowing and wonderful, I rise to the occasion in a way that makes the annoyance or simple joys more difficult to access.

Today, all I can do is laugh.

Or - I could work myself into a frenzy, I guess. I do less of that in general these days, thank God. It's tempting to complain, but I think I'll try to keep a sense of humor instead.

You see, I am a literalist. If someone says the sidewalk will be replaced over the weekend of July 19th, possibly through Monday, I take that as the solemn truth. At least I took it as the solemn truth, cleared my schedule so as to give wide berth to the workers in front of the house and out of consideration to clients who would have a rather hard time coming up the alley, through the dental office and down the basement stairs to my domain.

But of course as it turned out, the work was not completed over the weekend. Actually they didn't work Saturday or Sunday at all. Today they're working. Today - a day when I rescheduled many of my clients, assuring each of them the work would be completed - they are putting down the flagstones right outside my window. There is sawing, and hammering, clouds of concrete dust flying around.

Oops.

It'll be ok - the clients coming this afternoon won't mind the circuitous route to the treatment space, and as for the sawing and hammering, I plan to crank up the massage music to eleven, if necessary, to drown out the noise. Perhaps it won't be as idyllic a situation as it usually is, but I'm determined to go on about my business because I can't keep canceling and/or shuffling people around. It's discouraging for them - for me, too.

For heaven's sake. If this is the worst thing to happen to me this year, I should be nothing but grateful!
Yes? I say yes.




6 comments:

ellen abbott said...

it's good to be flexible. my sister would, in your situation be so angry and stressed out. as would my son I think. I've always found it advantageous to be able to change my plans on short notice or accept changed circumstances readily.

Reya Mellicker said...

Sometimes I'm flexible, sometimes not so much, but in this case, I have been.

The new sidewalk is so gorgeous! Really. Wow.

Steve Reed said...

I'm sure it's annoying. I can't imagine why they would tell you the work would be done over the weekend, and then not work over the weekend. That's just bizarre.

Anonymous said...

Road work/ road workers - a law unto themselves - sounds like its been worth it though if it gets a wow of approval from you.

Anne said...

Oh, naughty company that said it would be paying overtime when actually it never really intended to!

I would have done exactly the same thing -- rescheduled everybody and then wonder why the hell I thought that actually anybody was going to be working on the weekend anyway.

Though god knows there's lots of shutting down tunnels for the weekend around here, so who knows.

Hang in there, bunny.

Susan Carpenter Sims said...

"It's the little things that make me happy, also the little things that annoy the hell out of me. For the big things, both harrowing and wonderful, I rise to the occasion in a way that makes the annoyance or simple joys more difficult to access."

I know exactly what you mean!