Thursday, January 22, 2009

Little Annoyances

I was annoyed when I woke up this morning.....that was 5 hours ago and I am still annoyed. At everything. As I sit here with my lukewarm coffee I have become convinced that my husband is the root of all annoyances. I know the old adage saying that opposites attract, but today that is small comfort. I asked him to build a simple cabinet for me; I even drew the plans in great detail. We already have cabinet doors, thanks to my sister gutting her kitchen, so I thought this would be relatively easy. I still think it is a simple task---if only he would stay "on task". He started a week ago and it is still a work in dubious progress. I can tell anyone else what I want and they will "get it". I don't know why I cannot communicate as well with a man that should know me better than anyone. On day one of his cabinet adventure he disappeared to "the barn" (this is a scary place with numerous projects in various stages of incompletion, making navigation to whatever tool he wants precarious---I don't go in there). He made several trips in to warm up. He has a wood stove out there (that is WAY scary) and will build a fire so that he can work in relative comfort. It usually gets warm enough around bedtime...... I did suggest (several times) that he cut the necessary pieces and assemble them inside. I was told (how many times have I heard this?) that he knew what he was doing and to just wait. Okay. I waited. Finally on day three he began assembling the frame that would hold the shelves and in came this ladder looking apparatus that he said was the front that the doors would go on-correction, the bottom front. The doors will cover both shelves, so I was confused. I could see right away that the doors weren't going to fit properly and said so. "Just wait, you'll see", I was told. I waited and watched him finally figure out that I was right. I was annoyed that he had wasted three days and raw material to make something that was pretty much useless; but we laughed about it and I once again tried to tell him what I wanted. Made him a cake, too. He remade "the frame" and then discovered the doors wouldn't fit in this one. Another day passes and I kind of mention that I would like to be able to use the cabinets. Deep sigh of resignation and off he goes to the infamous barn. I went to my sewing room to work on my current project and could hear him at work on the cabinet. The cabinet will have two sets of doors, he got one set done and quit for the day. I was annoyed, but figured any progress was better than none. He was off all day yesterday. I waited up for him the night before and made one of his favorite treats (boiled peanuts) and let him sleep til 10:30. When he did get up I asked about his plans for the day. Nothing on his agenda, so I asked if he would be finishing my cabinets. Affirmative. Yes, I am happy!!! I was working on various things all day and at around 4PM noticed that absolutely no progress had been made on my cabinets. Beer in hand he was searching for the remainder of his boiled peanuts. I was very annoyed, but used great restraint and simply said "I thought my cabinets would be done today". He stormed out to his hideaway to finish them. As the day was winding down, around 5:30 I went out to gather enough firewood to get through the evening. I hate to go out in the dark to get wood, I wandered out to the barn, but he wasn't there. He was standing around with some of our campers looking at some trailers and off-road vehicles. I showed no restraint when he came in. The cabinets have the doors on, there is an unsightly gap on one set of the doors and I would disregard even that if I could use them--there are no shelves and the top needs to be cut down to size. I remain annoyed.......and not just a little!

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