Sunday, December 16, 2007
Chaotic Disorder!
I know that you have probably never heard of chaotic disorder, but you will know it when you see it. I least I did. I woke us this morning and did not what where I was. It turned out that I was a sleep in the kitchen in my recliner. Now I know that you are wondering what in the world was my recliner doing in the kitchen and what was I doing there? There is a simple explanation. We moved some furniture around so that the repair people could refinish our floors. The kitchen was as good a place as any other for the recliner. And besides it was closer. And what was I doing in the recliner? Well my back was bothering me last night when I got ready for bed. And the bed or at least the mattress was in the study. So I took some ibuprofen and slumped down in the recliner for a long winter nap.
Oh! I suppose you are wondering what the mattress was doing in the study? And what happened to the rest of the bed? Well, we moved some furniture around so that the repair people could refinish our floors. And we had to have some place to sleep so the study seemed as good a place as any to stow it. We leaned it against the wall-sized bookcase that we had stashed there. At night we would plop it down on the floor. So the mattress had become a pseudo Murphy bed. The only thing it was not in the wall but just reclining against the bookcase. The rest of the bed was disassembled lying here and there about the room—where ever it seem an appropriate place to store it at the time or where ever it would fit. With the bed I don’t recall whether it was “appropriate” or “fit.” There was after all a lot of furniture to be moved.
I got up had some coffee, took a shower and started to get dressed. I picked up a pair of dark socks and they were mismatched. So I went to the bathroom and climbed over the sofa cushions that were in the tub, wiggled past the john and opened my chest of drawers, which was facing against the outside wall. Now I know that you are wondering what the sofa cushions were doing in the tub and why anyone would be so foolish as to place a chest of drawers in such an awkward position. Well there is a simple explanation. The floor repair people were coming and we had to put the furniture some place, at the time that seemed as good a place as any other. And besides we each had taken an ample supply of clothes and stashed or dumped them close to the mattress in the study. She stashed. I dumped. Unfortunately, I did not double-check my socks to make sure that they had been properly matched.
So, at least I had my socks. But suddenly I began to think about my shoes. Not my everyday shoes but my dress shoes—my Sunday-go-to-meeting shoes. I could not find them anywhere. So I frantically began to search where they might be. They were not in the bathroom nor were they in the study. And then I remembered. They must be in the truck. And they were. Now, I know you are wondering why my shoes would be in my pickup. Well there is a simple explanation. The repair people were coming and we had to empty all our closets. And the furniture had by and large pre-empted most of the available room and the tent trailer was full of clothes so I chose the path of least resistance and “dumped” most of the clothes and shoes that I thought I would not need in the Sonoma.
I should mention that we had emptied four rooms of furniture and only had two rooms and a bath to store furniture that might somehow impede the people who were supposed to show up and work on our floors. The small formal dining area just off the kitchen was designated as the logical plot to hold the breakfront, the piano, the harpsichord, and the two sofas minus their cushions, of course. Everything else had to go in the study, the garage, or the kitchen. Did I mention that we have a lot of furniture?
After I got dressed I made another important discovery. I did not have any car keys! Diana had left early and had taken the SUV to make to choir practice before the regular service. I was left with the Prius but apparently without any keys. I searched through my pants pockets for the last two days and my coat pockets—all to no avail. I then remembered that I had been crawling around under the house two days earlier (that is another story), so I managed to make my way to the laundry room and found the dirt coated items that I had worn under the house. I checked the pockets. Nothing! In desperation I went out to the car and the door was unlocked which meant the keys were inside. Voila!
So there you have it, Chaotic Disorder.
