September 08th, 2022

You see that note?  I wrote it.  I put it on my keyboard. And the directive popped into my head throughout the entire day yesterday.  And in fact, I remember considering,  as I was about to start dinner last night, "should I take it out now while I'm thinking about it or wait until after dinner?"  Ultimately I decided to wait.  It was a decision made in the name of efficiency.  The assumption was that I would, most likely, creative at least a little bit more refuse to add to the bin while in the process of making dinner.  It was not a good choice though as this morning the garbage cans remain at the side of the house instead of at the curb where they would already have been picked up, dang it all!

We are lucky enough where we live that year 'round, we have two garbage pick up days each week, Monday and Thursday am. Which means that, if we want our trash taken away, most people around here wheel the bins to the curb on the night before.  Generally,Tim and I do not generate enough waste to need to use both days 99% of the time, we only use the Monday pick up. In fact it is a Very Rare Occasion that we take advantage of that second day.  This week however, since the Monday pick up day was a holiday,  Thursday was the plan.  

For a change we had a rather full bin and it being the end of summer with hothothot days, it was, ummmmmm, shall we say, getting a bit fragrant.  Let's face it, that garbage  was ripe and ready to go.  But Thursday pick up being outside the norm for me, I was concerned that I would forget.  So I wrote notes. I left them in obvious places (like my keyboard). AND I asked Tim to please  remind me, if I forgot.  And still, guess what.  I forgot.  Ratz.  

Why do we do things like this to ourselves?   Why?

Then there was the duck sauce incident.  Sigh.    We always have duck sauce in the house because I put it on my fried rice.  And I don't want any comments on what a travesty that is.  I'm the one eating it and that's how I like it so hush.  My order at our favourite take away Chinese food place is veggie fried rice.  AND I've learned to just buy my own duck sauce and keep it in the fridge rather than use those teensy little plastic wrapped packets that they provide.  (I dont' care very much for theirs)

The duck sauce resides in one of the racks in the fridge doors. You know, along with all of the other condiments and odd ball things.  We have the usual mustard, mayo and ketchup in the door rack on the right side along with salad dressings, tubes of garlic and tomato paste, horseradish (ick) and a couple of thermoses of water.  On the left side, however, are the less frequently used things such as chicken broth, soy sauce,  aloe vera (for sunburns) and, obviously, duck sauce.  Just a little tip, unless those racks are completely totally and entirely filled, the jars and bottles rattle around a bit every time the door is opened and closed.  Usually it's no big deal.

Well apparently the last time we ordered Chinese food, I did not properly twist the cap on the duck sauce closed.  At some point, the jar tipped over in the closing and/or opening of the door.  Which means, eventually the top came off and the duck sauce came out. With each opening/closing of the door, more came out but nobody noticed because, well, who looks at  the condiment racks in the refrigerator unless they are looking specifically for a condiment?? Not I, certainly.  And on that particular side, since it's more odd ball stuff, I probably look even less frequently.  

It came to my attention while I was making a grocery list .  Prowling through the pantry, freezer and fridge, looking to see if there was anything we were out of or nearly so, I saw the tipped over jar and automatically righted it.  My fingers came away a bit sticky.  What?  So I looked closer, put down the pen and paper and removed the jar entirely.  DANG IT!  Big Old Pile of refrigerated duck sauce.  Turns out that while it was a very tasty spill, it was not an easy clean up.  And now duck sauce is back on the grocery list.

I have nobody to blame but myself. I am the only one in the house who uses duck sauce and since I am chief cook and bottle washer, there is a 99.999999% chance that I am the one who put it away without tightening the cap.  Turns out I boobytrapped myself.  Big dummy.

Oh yes and then there was the time, (over this past weekend in fact)  when Tim was working on a project.  While he was busy with that I decided it would be the perfect time to dust, vacuum and wash the floors.  Once that was all done, I offered to help him out with his project and he was happy to have an extra set of hands.  I became sort of the 'runner' trotting back and forth to  garbage bins,  fetching things as needed and refilling his water glass.  Which means I was..what was I doing class?...That's right!  I was walking through the dirty project area and across my newly cleaned floors over and over and  over.

You can actually see my dirty footsteps!  Yes I did that to myself once again!  Sabotage is one thing, but sabotaging yourself?  It's kind of crazy.  Dang it, I say!   Rasenfratz!  Kreplach!  Iggysnatz!  And all of the other made up substitute swear words that I thought up when the boys were little.

I cannot be the only person who trips themselves up.  In fact, I am positive that I am not. I hear stories all of the time of similar sorts of things going on in other households.  But do we learn from these mistakes?  Well, speaking solely for myself, yes, sometimes I do.  But then I go on to make brand new exciting other mistakes instead.  

(insert much shaking of head here)

The  human animal continues to be one of the oddest creatures in existence.  I mystify myself on a daily basis.