Friday night had arrived, and walking home from school little one was buzzing with what was going to unfold: Library trip, gymnastics cafe lunch and a birthday party was locked in for Saturday and Sunday was end of year show for her class then whatever she wanted. So full of life and happy they went to sleep excited.
The morning was strange, ”i’m tired Daddy” and then finding out temp was up, alarm bells rang. Out with the lateral flow and thats when everything changed:
In that nanosecond all those plans melted, there was initial floods of tears followed by a very mature for age ”there will be another time“. So what to do now?
In the next nanosecond the ”sort the garage” list item sprang to the top of the list. Rewind 3 years and the removal lorries arrived at our new house. All the boxes labeled ”cellar” or ”garage” were stacked neatly in the garage. Back to the hear and now and they were still there, all damp and collapsed, moved about looking for things an just a complete headache.
I had to start in that moment otherwise something else would quickly fill this crazy ideas slot. 2 hours later and there was a mountain of ”stuff” on the patio. Luckily I had bought racking some time back with this exact moment in mind, so building started. This was slowed down by supper, hair drying and books for little one, and finished in the dark by torchlight. This is the moment I thought ”I need sleep” closely followed by “but what if I get covid” so press on it was”
Next thought that sprang to mind was where a few thing would go, and hanging from the roof beams seemed the perfect place. Tea break and a quick check on amazon found the perfect solution, it order for next day (Sunday) delivery and carried on.
11pm hit a low point tired and dark are never a good combination, tripped over (not in) the pond and skinned my hand at the base of my thumb, quick emergency plaster later and I was back on. It was midnight when everything was on shelves or in boxes, and all in the garage. Quick shower, bandage up hand and sleep as I would be up at 06:30.
06:30 came all to fast and covid or no covid there is no stopping the little ones body clock! Opening the door to take the dog out and I was immediately reminded of the mountain of decaying damp cardboard boxes I had created. Quick bite to eat and load the car time. Had to spend an hour flattening boxes if I had a chance. Whilst flattening amazon delivery dropped off the roof beam hooks, so took a “distraction break” to hang up a couple of items. Car loaded to the gunnels I set off for the tip.
The queue at the tip was mental, but for once I didn’t mind I could slow down and lose myself in an audiobook whilst inching forward once in a while. Soon enough I was leaving the tip with that feeling of elation after throwing away old clutter to return home. I had to open the garage door just to look, and it felt great.
So my take-away here is when faced with bomb-shell moments look for the the things that can turn them around, this moment will now forever be remembered for crossing a gnarly 3 year old item off the list. There are now more items on the list as yes its all in the garage, but there is still too much of it! Have added, “sort out racking unit 1”, “sort out racking unit 2” …. hopefully these are smaller more achievable tasks!
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