A Case of the What If’s
So the other night I had a life lemon aimed my way.
What I refer to as a case of the “What If’s”
I was watching t.v. when I got a message on my phone. It was the neighbor upstairs. He was asking me if his wife’s music was too loud. She works from home in the basement, on the other side of the house and apparently her music was driving him nuts and he wanted to make sure it wasn’t bothering me.
I told him I didn’t hear it at all, as I usually have my own music or t.v. on. Then I proceeded to ask him if he heard mine to which he replied, “Not at all.”
One of the daily gratitudes I have is this. Respectful, thoughtful neighbours.
Very important when living in the basement of a house and the upstairs is rented as well.
At this time I let him know the paint in the bathroom looked great that the landlord did the other day.
Then he asked if the landlord had said anything to me about them. I said no…curious as to why he asked.
Then he told me they were moving…
My heart just about stopped. He told me their plans for retiring closer to his family on the east coast.
“Wow..that’s quite the adventure!” was all I could say. I was in shock.
“We will miss having great neighbours.” I said. And he replied, “No worries, Tony (landlord) will get good people in here.
That’s when the life lemon smacked me right in the mouth! LOL
The “What If’s” raced into my head from all directions.
What if…a large family of elephants moves in, with ten kids running around day and night non stop!?
What if…they cook week old road kill and we have to start wearing gas masks to avoid the stench.
What if…they aren’t friendly, we share a laundry room. Or worse…what if they’re too friendly!
I’m an introvert, I don’t do the morning coffee at your place or mine kind of thing!
Oh my gawd the list goes on!
Then I realized what my head was doing, and I took a deep breath and told myself to slow down.
Don’t invite trouble as the saying goes.
I made myself change up my mindset, as I’ve talked about before.
I tried to turn the same “What If’s” into positive ones.
What if…instead of elephants, they are field mice with teeny tiny feet, that prance around light footed.
With one child on a strict routine in bed by 7pm?
That could work for me.
What if…they cook all the exact same foods as we eat, by some odd chance they don’t cook at all, and survive on a liquid diet (that doesn’t require a blender).
That could work for me.
What if…they are introverts too! A friendly hello, how are you if we meet outside. Then we quickly retreat to our own parts of the house.
That could work for me.
So I was able to talk myself out of a “What If” induced panic attack.
We will see what the summer brings, as the neighbours move in June.
And whatever happens, we will deal with it, and get a solution figured out. Hopefully making a lemon cocktail out of a life lemon!
I’ll keep you posted on what happens!
Update: We dodged a lemon on this one. Single guy, keeps to himself yet friendly, bit of a heavy stepper. But he doesn’t seem to use the laundry room so I have it to myself with is perfect. Not sure if you washes his clothes by hand or take them down the hill to the bay and beats them on a rock? So all is good for now!
Life Experience Wisdom
* Sometimes you have to wait and see what happens, before reacting to life lemons.
* Don’t invite trouble!
Well that’s it for this week, thanks for stopping by.
Cheers til next week,
Grace
My Motto
When life throws baseball size lemons at you, that smack you upside the head, stomp on those damn things and make yourself a cocktail!