Saturday, February 16, 2008

It's the Small Things That Get You

Have you ever been bitten by a hippopotamus? How about a rhinoceros? Me either! You know what drives me crazy, though? Small, no-see-ums...bugs that bite that you don't see. Mosquitoes....arghhhh! Redbugs, chiggers, fleas, ticks!!!! Help!!! I'm starting to itch writing about them.

You want to know what the funny thing is? It's the small things that get you. You can see a hippopotamus coming from a mile away. Even slow runners like me could take cover from a hippo. And I'm not saying I could outrun a rhino, but I dang sure think I would see it coming! But the little bugs, they can drive a man crazy!

Now you're probably asking yourself, where is Mark going with this? My point is this: It's the small things that get you. I think I heard it first from Angie's dad. After I had made some home-fix-it mistake at our first house, he told me "you can have '99 attaboys' but it's the one 'oh crap' that gets you."

I made all kinds of "brownie points" with Angie this week with her birthday and Valentine's Day. But for some unknown reason, I stayed up late last night while Angie was working. No problem, right? It's Friday night, I can sleep late Saturday. Yes, most folks probably could. But everyday I wake up at about the same time and my body clock buzzed at its regular time this morning. So up-and-at-'em just like every other day. But ole Marky ran out of gas about four this afternoon. I wasn't going to wake Angie up until about five-ish....so, I'm thinking one-hour nap. Forty winks will do the body good, right? I lay next to Angie and set the clock for 5:15 pm.

Oh, did I forget to tell you that I snore? Well, truth is, I SNORE!!! I pull the nails out of the wall snore. Well, Angie was effectively sleeping until I started sawing logs. She shoved me several times, which didn't do anything but make me mad. All the commotion didn't do anything but keep her awake. We both woke up "sideways" with each other. If I had only taken a nap on the couch....dumb bunny!!!

I tell you this to help us all remember, it's the small things that get you. If I had gone to bed on time last night...if I had taken a nap on the couch...if....if...if. You've heard it said that the devil is in the details. I'm starting to pick up on that right now.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

(In reference to the comment left on my blog...) Where do you come up with this stuff????

pard1959 said...

Don't tell anybody, but try this: if you stand really close to me, speak clearly towards either one of my ears and then listen...quietly...

Shortly thereafter you will hear an echo of what you just said. All those scientists have been wasting their time looking for the "black hole" in outer space. The thing is...all this time, it's been right between my ears.