Chain Reaction

Do you see that cute strawberry-motif thermal carafe on the top shelf of the kitchen cabinet? It was a gift that was left on a doorstep for me last week from a friend who works at the LQS. She knows that I love strawberries and that I have strawberry dishes; she passed this along to a very grateful me! Mr. Goodneedle brought it in and left it on the counter top one day last week. It sat there for a good while, I admired it's beauty whenever I passed. Later in the day he went to pick up dinner for us at a local restaurant. While he was gone I decided to put it away, up on that top shelf. That simple act began a chain reaction of disastrous events that would rival any I Love Lucy episode! To begin with, I crawled up there, and in an effort to rearrange items already there, I inadvertently knocked off a jar of homemade seasoning salt onto the granite counter top below. The jar was substantial in size-- an old applesauce jar, and, naturally, it was glass. When it made contact it virtually exploded, sending shards of glass, salt, pepper and garlic powder everywhere! It was a huge mess. I very carefully crawled down, began to pick up and sweep up, and, in doing so, knocked my favorite hand-warmer mug over onto the counter top where it fractured and fell into two pieces, immediately releasing its contents of hot, freshly-brewed English Breakfast tea onto the counter top, into the drawers in the drawer stack underneath, onto the floor and onto me and my shirt! I couldn't believe what was happening. Certainly I didn't want my shirt to commemorate this disaster by bearing a permanent tea-stain; I peeled it off, ran to the laundry room and threw it into the laundry sink. I turned on the tap and decided to let it sit there under cool, running water. I could only handle one occurrence at a time!  Grabbing towels from everywhere that I could reach, I ran back to the kitchen and continued to frantically mop up-- sweep up-- pick up. Right around the time that I felt I was starting to gain on the mess I suddenly remembered the running water and my shirt in the sink. NO! You guessed it; in only a few minutes the laundry room sink was pouring out water onto the counter top and floor, my shirt had acted as a stopper and plugged the drain. I was beyond exasperated at this point. I grabbed the sopping mess out of the sink and tossed it into the washing machine. This was followed by more soaking-up, more mopping; this chain-reaction calamity seemed to go on forever! By the time Mr. Goodneedle came through the door carrying our dinner I had my shirt and a load of towels in the washing machine, another load in the dryer, a spic and span laundry room, a freshly cleaned kitchen floor, spotless counter tops and dried and polished drawer and cabinet door fronts. Broken glass, the mug and seasoned salt debris had all been securely wrapped in brown paper and disposed of. "What did you do while I was gone?' he asked. Believe me, we had plenty to talk about over dinner.

Yesterday a package arrived in our mailbox. Mr. Goodneedle ordered a replacement for my beloved hand-warmer mug. What a wonderful surprise and loving gift; I was thrilled to pieces. Well-- not too many pieces,😲 that's a poor choice of phrases in this instance; let's just say that I was delighted at his thoughtfulness; what a guy! 

As for that precious thermal carafe, I really do love it and will certainly use it; just not right away.

It's going to take time for me to work up the courage to get back up there and get it down, 

I'm not quite brave enough yet. 

Life is Good!