I’m worried ...

Something strange has been happening in my house over the past few weeks and I’m worried.

Things are changing. And it’s not just confined to one room.

I first noticed it when the food from the cupboards started disappearing. Then there was a problem with the washing machine. The clothes looked OK. Even when I ironed them they looked fine. It was just when I put them on that I noticed something odd: they were shrinking.

This is particularly strange because it has affected even my coats. Because of the warm weather I haven’t been wearing them, but the late autumnal change has brought cold winds and cloud-filled skies.

I think the heat from the summer has shrunk the clothes or the temperature dial on the washing machine has been set to high. Because something is desperately wrong.

At first I thought it was a mouse and even considered a mouse trap but these particular visitors are not leaving the usual traces of their visits.

Then I realised that it was indeed something else. Something that needed a bigger trap to catch it.

So, if you don’t see me for a while it’s because I am busy fighting this new-fangled contraption that is called a ‘free-will trap’: I know it’s the cause of all the strange happenings. I may set up a video camera and record my findings to post here at a later stage.

Things are indeed changing.

Bags and springs

I don’t use handbags as a rule. And I didn’t use one on this occasion but when I was searching at the bottom of my shoulder bag it reminded me of the days when I used to conform to type and carried a handbag (to church, at least).

I couldn’t find anything in the bag. I was looking for something small and as I rooted around in the bottom of the bag my hand touched many familiar items but not one of them was the right one for that moment.

Although I remained pleased that I could identify things in the bag without looking at them I soon began to despair because I didn’t find exactly what I was looking for.

The multiple items I was carrying in the bag had somehow managed to undo a pen I had in there. I found the lid, the barrel and the ink refill but when I put them all together with the other pieces the pen did not work; something was still missing.

Almost immediately I realised that it was the spring and this time I emptied the bag out – to no avail.

The pen was now useless to me. I was not happy.

A few days later I had my hand in the bag again and felt something unexpected; when I pulled it out I realised that it was the lost spring. This discovered both baffled and pleased me.

I had ceased looking for it and yet it presented itself to me without great ceremony when I least expected it. I reunited the spring with the pen and was suddenly grateful that I had not yet thrown it away – as I had already deemed it useless.

When the right things are in the right place at the right time well, everything just seems to work as it is supposed to. Sometimes you just have to wait for the thing you were looking for to be discovered. It all falls into place when you least expect it to – at least it did for me and my pen!

Splinters

This morning I did something I do with regularity but the outcome was different and changed the course of the next hour considerably. While opening the bamboo blinds in the kitchen I reached up and straightened the roller. Ouch! A splinter embedded itself into my finger. I quickly let go of the blind and the unsymmetrical shape no longer bothered me as the sharp pain coursed through my finger. I tried to convince myself that nothing was in there that my skin just caught the edge of the wood but the reality of the increasing throbbing pain told me otherwise. Leaving the blind I inspected my finger in the rising light from outside. It was getting redder and darker. Frantically I searched for a needle to get it out. Grateful that I could use my stronger hand I began to break the skin around the dark patch on my finger. The imperceptible hole that it had made to enter my finger was now getting larger as I stabbed around trying to dislodge it. I was squeezing it and gently pushing the sliver of wood back to the surface of my skin. It seemed to hurt more as I tried to get it out than when it went in.


Splinters are almost on a par with stones in your shoe for being the most uncomfortable experience caused by a small item in your life. They are there. You can feel them – constantly causing you discomfort and try as you might you cannot dislodge them so the pain continues until you can be free, somehow. Eventually the stone is shaken loose or the slither of wood is squeezed out from under the skin and you are liberated from the suffering. But even when the obstacle is removed, the phantom stone or splinter remains in the same place causing you distress. It is as if nothing has changed for a while, until you become accustomed to a pain free existence.
Now with the splinter removed there is a small flap of loose skin as a reminder of the foreign body that was temporarily implanted in me. It caused pain and I will remember it – for a while – then everything will be back to normal again.
Splinter free.