When I think of this day..part of me is so proud and sparkly..And
part of me just wants to run to the nearest toilet and vomit .
For the purpose of this post I will chose to focus on the
former.
I remember the day exactly as it was recently-the Christmas
holidays 2014. There is always that swing and transition that take me a few
days to get into over any holidays where the first few days I can’t unwind and
relax or appreciate and then about by day 4 I am thinking “wow this should
never end”
775$ day came at day 6 of our holidays. Right after all
the Christmas prep was over and all our time was not taken up from cleaning, wrapping,
decorating and planning like the rest of the world. I remember this day being a
particular good one as the kids let us sleep in by not having ski practices and
so it was a lounging day. I blogged and read and just soaked up all the wonderfulness
of this day. The night before we had made massive portions of spaghetti to
freeze and and a yummy baked dessert for dinner. We also enjoyed French onion soup
for lunch. All of this cooking added up to a sink full of piled high sticky
dirty saucy yucky dishes. But hey who cared right –they could wait until later.
Nobody knew at that point that tragedy would strike that evening.
As we managed to get our lazy butts away from the fire
long enough to load up the dishwasher, I remember taking a brief moment and
thanking the world that we had a dishwasher. I think I may have even taken a
moment to tell it and pat it. We happily loaded it up, with still a second load
waiting in the sink ,and let it work it’s magic.
Well. It’s magic ran out. In the middle nonetheless of
our load. It started with a little red flashing light-never a good sign when a
light is red and not a simple yellow or green. If you were not in denial,you
might even realize the end is very near.
Halt. Stop. Middle of load. Second massive load in the
sink.
All of this equals in my mind-DISASTER.DAY RUINED. REST
OF HOLIDAY RUINED. The serene thoughts of reading and lounging and taking it
easy were now replaced by massive loads of dishes being scrubbed by hands. I
knew we had many many guests arriving the next week and just pictured them
resenting us and breaking up with us as we would have no choice but to put them
to work as slaves three times a day. Or picturing all the menus we had planned
or and dreamed up being replaced by cold Big Macs and fries eaten off the paper itself as to not waste dishes. Not to even mention the dishwasher full of dirty dishes
and soap and water that needed to be dealt with mid cycle and broken.
Well it was then and there where I made a strategic decision.
A long term decision. I WAS NOT GOING TO ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN TO OUR FAMILY
When my husband suggested we just replace the part (25$)
this option sounded reasonable until I heard the actual details. Ok the part it
being the 4th time we have to replace this part was not too bad, or the part where this
particular dishwasher seems to have to have manual labor on it every two months
to function did not get me too much, but the part about the store selling the
part being closed on the 25th of December was just too much to bear? I mean who
dare close on Christmas day in such an important needed business?
This would mean we would have to sleep at home in the
city ( actually a really beautiful
suburban home in the almost country) on Christmas night and come back to our
precious cottage on the morning of the 26 vs the evening of the 25? Are you
kidding me? To waste an actual morning of sleeping in and a night of being by
the fire for a dishwasher part that probably will only last a few months
anyways. This can’t be.
Well we discussed a lot my husband and me and really thought
it through. I mean this was a biggie right? He was leaning towards the fact
that we really didn’t have much choice in the matter did we unless we wanted to
wash dishes by hand all the rest of the vacation. And then the wheels of my
savvy mind started turning and I came up with an AMAZING alternative.
LET’S GO BUY A NEW DISHWASHER INSTEAD!!!!!
AND HEY TO SAVE TIME TO BE ABLE TO READ MORE AND BLOG MORE
AND RELAX MORE-LET’S GO TO THE REALLY EXPENSIVE KITCHEN BOUTIQUE AROUND THE
CORNER HERE UP NORTH AND TRY TO CONVINCE THEM TO GIVE US THE BOXING DAY SALE PRICE EARLY!
So all 5 of us did that.. A family affair. Exciting. We
were sweet talked by the salesman who had probably never had anyone buy a
dishwasher from him in his life as he rattled off all the amazing attributes of
“our “dishwasher as though it were a precious gem. We were lucky enough to get
a 50 dollar rebate too! Yippee! I even convinced him to deliver it 3 hrs later he
to our house as it was an emergency! And he listened to me!
We gave our credit card and even went to spend an extra
21.50$ to celebrate our new purchase over chocolate croissants and hot chocolate
with whipping cream next door at the bakery (on the credit card),
When it was delivered a few hours later and my husband
installed it which took a few hours ,and we realized it has a very inconvenient
way of needing cutlery to be loaded, and no baskets for small parts, and very
little room for pots and that each time you touch this particular stainless style
(i.e. : every minute) that it leaves a big hand mark that has to be removed by
a special product, and that it didn’t even clean better than our old dishwasher
even without the new part…we kind of felt….depressed.
We don’t have 800$ (plus tax) at all to make this kind of
spontaneous purchase. We didn’t need a new dishwasher. We had buyer’s regret.
We had no money to pay off our credit card (especially after Xmas!). We have
made a boo-boo and now it was too late.
There is no happy ending to this story people. This is
where it ends. We spent more money on an unneeded dishwasher than most people
spend on a trip to Cuba all to have an extra morning at our cottage of holiday
when it comes down to it. We have a very mediocre dishwasher in place and have
to work many hours to make up for the money it cost us to buys the new one. Even
to this day each time I see it running in the kitchen I feel a little confused.
An each time I pass the one frozen outside that we haven’t bothered to haul up
a steep hill to the highway garbage-I miss it a little.
(And that precious next day at the cottage? I think we
fought most the day and the kids were all after another and in bad mood anyways).
Basically we could have spent 25$ and because of me we spent 775$ more than
that for very little improvement or difference if any at all.
See why I want to mostly vomit???? (And no it is not
because my husband slapped me so hard in the face for this mistake that I am
feeling nauseous LOL and joke).
But…but. There is always a but. Hidden jewel-nuggets of
happiness to any story. I found out the very very hard way..Where my priorities lie. And they might
not admit it but my husband’s priorities and even my three children’s
priorities to a certain extent. I found out that day that we are willing to go
to great lengths to enjoy a holiday together. That the price of a day at the
cottage all together is worth a lot to us ($775 to be exact). That we are
willing to do some crazy ridiculous things to ensure we get and claim that
precious time together as a family. And as ridiculous as it may seem to you to hear
or for me to write or admit-the success
of our family has always been to get our priorities straight and to let nothing
interfere. We make time for things that are important, we don’t cancel on
important occasions, and we get what is important to us done. We align our values
with our actions, we try as much as possible to walk to the talk, we fight for
space in our lives to live what we work so hard to protect.
And even if this 775$ day was stupid and ridiculous and
arrogant and pompous, we could not afford it ,and we made what appeared to be a
ridicules and stupid choice…
There will be part of me that always walks past that
dishwasher and pats in on it’s stupid stainless steel front with my dirty hand
that then leaves its mark on it 500 times a day and in between wanting to puke
for all the money we don’t have that we wasted on this stupid, dumb appliance………..that
I feel sparkly from the inside core and proud and good and lightheaded in a
good way because this little good feeling amongst all the bad ones…reminds me:
That I make deliberate and ridiculously good decisions.
And that wild horses won’t hold me back from continuing
to do so.
That I am back in the game. Alive and kicking. I am now back
to who I once was.
Disclaimer
: if you want to comment on words like "tragedy and crisis" to describe a dishwasher
breaking or to point out these are third world problems-save your breathe. I
already know and am fully aware. Keeping it light once in a while
