A 15-minute Chore

Note: In the following post, I'm not complaining. Really, I'm not. Last night at Bible Time, Dad challenged us to go through the next day being especially careful to "do all things without murmuring or disputing." So I'm not complaining.

When the following story was taking place, I felt like complaining. But I was alone and there was no one to listen to me, so I skipped the talking. Now, I'm glad I did, because as I look back on the situation, I find it humorous instead of annoying.

It all started when I was late getting my clothes hung out to dry today. Tuesdays are my wash day, and I like to get an early start in hanging out my clothes on the line, to be sure they dry completely by the end of the day.

However, today found me hanging my clothes out between 10:30 and 11:00. That alone had me a little unhappy, but I was thankful that the day promised to be a very hot one, and I didn't need to worry about my clothes staying wet for long.

We were also low on our clothespin supply, and Mom had used a great deal of them to hang out towels earlier in the day. The towels flapped gaily behind me as I worked, happily unaware that they were using the clothespins I wanted.

Did I mention the day was already very hot? I wanted to finish as fast as possible and get inside, away from the heat. I had two things to get done before I could head inside; hang the clothes, and water baby plants that were sitting on the deck.

These things all seem little by themselves, but piled together they seemed annoying.

Our clothesline is not a few lines between two poles. It is four ropes between two great tall trees. These ropes have been in use for a couple of years, and sag a little in the middle, but we make do.

Anyway...hold on to these random notes and keep them in mind as I finish the story. There I was, using three clothespins for every two shirts, working my way down the line. I had my hand on the very last one when a snapping sound shot through the air and my clothes were suddenly on the ground.

My nice, clean clothes were on the ground.

ALL my nice clean clothes.

The clothes I had just hung.

Our clothesline had just snapped.

I dove for the two ends of frayed rope, and held them up to keep my clothes off the ground. I was surprised at how heavy a load was on that rope. It was all I could do to keep the ropes taunt enough to keep the clothes up.

So there I was, in the middle of the clothesline, like the little boy plugging a hole in the dike with his finger. I couldn't let go of the rope, and I couldn't fix anything while holding it.

And no one was in the back yard.

Ahh - saved! Lezley finally came out onto the deck and asked me what I was doing. She held the ropes for me - no easy job for a little girl - while I transferred the clothes to the next line.

That settled the clothes. Now for watering the plants.

I didn't feel like hiking down the hill to our garden and fetching water from the tubs down there, so I grabbed a bucket and went to the rain barrels at one corner of the house.

There were three rain barrels on that particular corner of the house. I set the bucket under one and twisted the handle.

No water. It was empty.

No problem - I'm being patient, right? I tried the next one. No water there either. And no water in the third barrel either.

So off I go - all the way to the other corner of the house, where two more barrels sit.

You guessed it - no water in them either.

Then I remembered that Dad had drained all the water down to the garden tubs yesterday. I could have headed down there in the first place.

Long story short; I fetched the water, watered the plants, and headed inside. The outdoor errand that should have taken me 15 minutes took about 45.

But such is life. The small stories become adventures, and the problems can become blessings.

'Specially when you're blessed enough to have a blog to write on. Somehow everyday things become humorous to me when I write them out. Thanks for being readers!