Moments During Aging – Eyes Wide Shut
My wife and I awoke early one Sunday morning about seven not too long ago. We considered it a miracle since early has never been something we do. It was a historic moment; we agreed to get dressed and make it to early church followed by an attempt to beat the Sunday lunch crowd to our favorite eating place. We had plenty of time to make this happen.
After all, we did manage to arise earlier than most Sundays in quite some time. So, we felt comfortable with the idea of making it to church and the restaurant with our impulsive plan.
I was ready to go within fifteen minutes. I asked my wife if she was ready. Her response did irritate me a little. It was her usual answer, not yet but almost, “I am putting on my something or another, I will be ready in five minutes.” After twenty or so minutes I asked again, “Are you ready?” Well, after we reached the third go around of something or another, I told her I would be waiting in the car, and if she did not bring herself on promptly, I would start blowing the car horn. I knew the threat meant nothing to her and I should just be patient and not rush the timeline for the day.
As I approached the front door going to the car I had a thought or two about the frustration I felt every time we readied to leave the house under any circumstances. First, the time difference between getting ready was nothing new. I had no reason to concern myself about the time difference required between man and woman to get dressed and walk out the door together. I do understand some people make this minor frustration of mine work daily, but I for one had never experienced such an event. Secondly, I never needed a good reason to be frustrated, but that would continue to be beside the point. I am just that way for the most part. Maybe it is caused by a limited vocabulary of kind and patient words. Who knows why?
Either way, I would get in the car as usual and wait. And after the warmness of the car feeling had started wearing off, I would blow the horn out of a certain sense of I might be accomplishing something. Sometimes we do forget our purpose. My wife is probably the most patient woman I know. She knows my weaknesses and has always been a firm advocate of using them to her advantage whether just ribbing me or showing me who runs the show in our family.
Over the years, I have learned to maintain my frustrations while laughing and smiling when she does finally finish getting ready to leave the house. However, these impatient distractions have led me to do some crazy things over the years.
Once I almost backed into a car that had parked on the opposite curb from our driveway. The wife screamed “Stop!” just as the guy in the car started blowing his horn. I just automatically jumped on the brake as they both surprised me. I could have sworn at the time the car had driven by when observed, but in fact, I witnessed the car coming to a stop short of the intersection thinking it was stopping just a hundred feet further at the intersection to the opposite side of our driveway as I observed his movement.
Oh well, that was not the worst. Forgetting to put the car in reverse to back out of the driveway and looking back and racing the engine wondering, “What is wrong now?” was nothing short of the time I put the car in drive instead of reverse and spent a thousand dollars replacing the garage door. Today I was only slightly irritated and had assured myself the wife would be right out, and we would not be late for early church and then enjoy an always delicious salad bar with my favorite chicken fettuccine.
As I waited, I heard a voice that sounded a lot like my beautiful wife but why was she on my side of the car yelling? She screamed my name several times it seemed before I could turn towards her and understand my dilemma. “Are you okay, honey?” echoed several times with I believe a few “What are you doing?” I noticed she was wearing her housecoat and looked as if the pillow was still pressing the hair up the left side of her head. Her unexpected appearance still dressed for bed stunned my thoughts entirely for a second or two. Why is she not dressed, I thought, as I realized neither was I.
There was nothing else to be said. I had just awakened from a pleasant dream and what would have been a beautiful day. I am sure.
We have since installed a hearty lock on the front door hoping to prevent any possible sleep driving events I might aspire to attempt.
pjaviator 