Wednesday morning I was getting ready to leave when I noticed that the garbage needed to be taken out. No worries, I grab the bag and open the door to the garage (which is attached to the house), press the button to open the double garage door, and pick up my PC bag and lunch. It is then I spy a small but ill placed pile of recyclable items. I really dislike my wife putting thing in my pathway, and I realize there are few places to put these items, but we have a very full garage with little room to walk around. We have her van (which is right next to the kitchen entrance) that takes up the entire length of where it is parked and my truck on the other side. The space between the wall and her van (where the kitchen entrance is) is maybe 18 inches wide and makes it difficult to get out under the best of conditions. Put a small pile (sometimes a large one) of recyclable materials for me to take out to the BIG bin in the alley and my PC bag and lunch and you have a very tight fit.
My wife likes putting the recyclables there for one of us to take out to the bin on our way out. Makes sense in some ways, but our garage is crowded and this little adventure of trying to get out of the house and into the garage with a full load PLUS recyclables is not fun. I have asked my wife to let me put the bin on the back patio so we can keep the walkway clear. She is not in favor of that since our patio (which has been extended) is already crowded. I agree that it is, but one of these days someone is going to get hurt because they are going to step on something that will cause them to fall. Most likely that will be me and having back problems will only complicate matters.
My wife is not unreasonable. No, just the opposite. She is very reasonable and very caring. She took great care of me while I was mending after back surgery and constantly watches for me. I am wondering if she is even aware of how much this bothers me? I know once I get a smaller vehicle, her van will be on the other side of the garage and my car will be next to the door and that will clear up a lot of space.
Oh well.
I noticed that we are getting so predictable when it comes to trash/recycling. In our area, you can recycle a lot. So much can be recycled, they have issued rolling bins the same size as our rolling trash cans to collect it all in. My wife has really taken to making sure that we recycle as much as we can. We recycle so much that our recyclable to trash ratio is over 2:1. That is right. We recycle over twice as much as we throw away. We only throw away about 2 bags a week (we could get by with one, but the aroma gets to my wife after a few days, so we take it out twice a week). That is very little in our huge rolling bin. The recycle bin on the other hand is the same size as our trash bin and we fill it FULL in 2 weeks. Sometimes we get so much we have to put it in other peoples (who do not recycle much) bins.
We recycle as much as we can. Cardboard, cereal boxes, milk containers, junk mail (yes we can do that here, after I pull out any of stuff that has my name on it and shred it), phone books (we get them every couple of months...and we do not have landline phone service), soda bottles, cans, jars, newspapers, magazines, etc. I think it is the junk mail that takes up the most space!
I have a confession to make that I am not very proud of. This morning I was getting ready for work and noticed that the dishes needed washed and that my wife had started a load of clothes. I was trying to get ready as well as catch up on e-mail and the news when the washer stopped. I went in, grumbling out loud that if I were to ever start a bunch of things and walk off, I would never hear the end of it. It was wrong and I was letting Satan pull my strings. I was wanting to get on the road before traffic got too heavy and my wife was not even in the shower yet. I was letting little things get to me and I reacted, poorly. As things would have it, my wife walked in and heard me grumbling. I had been caught acting like a child. She asked me what I was grumbling about and I told her I was just being selfish and was in a bad mood. We eventually got on the road (after I got the clothes out of the dryer, helped fold them, and washed the dishes) and drove mostly in silence. I felt really rotten for my behavior but I did not know what to say.
Fast forward to me at work (an my wife as well) and my wife sends me a humorous e-mail. It was just what I needed to open up to her. I told her that she really did nothing wrong and I was being selfish. She responded back telling me that she wishes she could remember to give up her hurt feelings to God more often, since this time she did and she was at peace.
What a woman. Thank you God for giving me a time with her. I promise I will treat her better each and every day.
No comments:
Post a Comment