Thankful For The “What If’s” In Our Lives…..

My dear readers…I have so much to be thankful for, and as I think back over the years…we have come a long way baby.

I know, we should be thankful all year long and not just on or near Thanksgiving.

And I truly am thankful, please permit me to re-tell a story that happened about a year ago to the day.

….so grab a cuppa your drink of choice, it is not a long story and I will also be sharing some watercolor photos of our home along the way.

About 4:30 pm Wednesday, the Captain was going out to a 4:45 pm appointment that he said shouldn’t last very long.

It was just before dinner as we like to eat early….and he was running a bit late. 

Soon after exiting the door connecting the house to the garage, he immediately popped back in the door and called to me.

“The spring is broke on the garage door…you won’t be able to open it to get your car out, I gotta run so I am using the pick-up truck”.

 

He shut the door quickly and I was left alone with my thoughts.

I blinked a couple times as what he said registered in my brain.

I have to tell you that I really hadn’t planned on going out….. BUT…you know what happens when someone tells you do not eat the chocolate….you want the chocolate all the more.

So I reasoned with myself. 

What if I needed to go out unexpectedly?

What if I needed fresh cream from the supermarket to finish up my Alfredo sauce for my 4 course dinner?  With company coming!

Never-mind that I was making Sloppy Joes for dinner….and no guests were invited.

BUT! I mean,WHAT IF?????

Luckily for us, we have a three car garage that holds two vehicles and “stuff”.  Lucky, because the pick-up truck sits outside and not IN the garage with the SUV and convertible, so the Captain had no issues with finding a vehicle to drive.

Unlucky because I was stuck with no vehicle due to the broken garage door spring….and add to that, the Captain was flying out early the next morning, driving the  pick-up truck to the airport long term parking.

Slowly, I moved towards the garage…..mostly in shock as many thoughts were whirling around in my “MacGyver Mind”.  

Do you remember the television show MacGyver? I believe they have brought a new version of this show back again. If you don’t remember it… it is about a guy who manages to rig ANYTHING to become the object he is in need of to save the day. He has been known to use a pocket knife to dis-arm a nuclear weapon.  Yeah….that kind of ridiculous.

Sooooooo….

I was plotting how to get one of the vehicles out of the garage for my use…at least until someone could get over to fix the door, which could be days or weeks if parts had to be ordered.  (That happened on one of the air conditioner units, it took several days for that part to arrive.)

I just had to check out this situation.  Surely, one could manually open the garage door and I could get one of the cars out to go somewhere, if needed.

I released the garage door opener by pulling down on the red corded manual opener.

Nothing.

I then took hold of the handle to lift the door!

WHOA!!!!!!!! I couldn’t budge it.  Obviously, there was no way I was going to be able to lift this door which weighed over 200 pounds, with one hand on a measly-week handle.

Impossible!

I looked up at the large tightly coiled spring, broken in two pieces atop one side of the door….. and compared it to the spring on the other side of the door which appeared intact.

No, that double garage door wasn’t going up.  No Way! No How!

My eyes darted to the small “third” garage door.  

Yeah…that one. 

The door with the power saw and miter saw benches and all kinds of “stuff” piled/stacked in front of it.

IF I could move all that stuff…..I reasoned with myself… then I could somehow maneuver the SUV which was on the other side of the garage to go sideways and then straighten it up again so I could exit that little door!!!!

….ALAS, it didn’t take but a few seconds to realize the futility of those thoughts!

Impossible!

And then it happened!

My cell phone rang in my pocket.

The deep familiar voice on the other end began speaking quietly and quickly.

“Honey, I called a garage door repairman and he will be at the house in about 30 minutes! He carries springs on his truck and will have the door fixed in about another 30 minutes! I should be out of my meeting by then, so I will take care of the bill when I get there.  Can’t talk. Got to go. Love You!!” and the phone went silent.

Yep! My knight in shining armor came to my rescue. 

I smiled.  And then I smiled some more, so thankful for his thoughtfulness.

And I went back into the house to finish my prep for the Sloppy Joes I had been planning for dinner.

I suddenly wished I had planned for that 4 course meal with special creamy Alfredo sauce….a special meal for a special person who took care of something for me, knowing that he would be flying out of town the next day.

It certainly wouldn’t have been the first time that I would have to step up to the plate and get something fixed or worked something out. You just do what you have to do when you have a husband who is only home every other week.  (The Captain flies 7 days on and 7 days off.)

Let’s face it! It is nice when there is a shoulder to lean on…to relieve you of a heavy burden, no pun intended!

That is what a marriage partnership is all about isn’t it?  Each one of us pulling our share of the load.

As I chopped the onion for the Sloppy Joes,  I realized that my casual dinner of Sloppy Joes were perfect for my Knight.

Comfort food for comfortable people.

We are comfortable with each other and we each do what needs to be done….no big parades or special praises. The Captain knows how thankful I am that he took care of the garage door.

He will see the smile on my face when he walks through the door.

And he will know.

Oh, I hope you enjoy the water color photos of our home. I found a new gadget on my Iphone.