“Auto” Pay More Attention

One arm was squeezing a grocery bag too tight, the other juggled my car keys, purse, tennis shoes, and a pot of hyacinth bulbs nearing bloom-time.  I had enough wiggle left in my fingers to get the kitchen door open before dropping all of the above in a spectacular mess.  Pudgy (our cat) wisely skittered off before a wayward avocado nailed her.

Tossing my coat in one direction and kicking my shoes off in another, I slapped my hand blindly outside the doorframe.  On about the third try I managed to hit the button that closes the garage door. It was about then I realized how different my life is from not all that long ago.  I also realized how quickly a person takes for granted the conveniences that surround us.

It wasn’t until I married my husband and moved to our current home that I experienced owning the following for the first time in my life:

1. a dishwasher
2. a garage
3. a garage door opener
4. a fireplace
5. an outside deck

I remember one of my high school teachers asking how many of us students thought we’d have a washer and dryer in our first homes after graduating.  Most of us looked around somewhat baffled.  Of course we’d have a washer and dryer! What? Were we uncivilized?

But you know what?  When my first husband and I moved into our house, we didn’t have the money to buy a washer and dryer.  It was off to the Laundromat for us.  It wasn’t until our first child arrived that we purchased a washing machine (with the help from my mother-in-law), and a used dryer.  Later, after divorcing, I once again used the Laundromat and hoisted baskets of clothes to and from the upstairs apartment the kids and I were renting.

Today, as I schlepped into the kitchen, the hum of the dishwasher’s “pots and pans” cycle was in full harmony with the rest of the conveniences I adore but have gotten used to as part of my daily rhythm.

Push a button here.  Press a button there.  It’s so much easier now.  Listening to the garage door screech and grind its way to the ground was a good reminder of how far I’ve come, but how close the past is too.