Monday, June 30, 2014

Dealing with waiting

So as you can see from this posts title, we're still waiting on Home Depot. Some of us more impatiently than others, I might add.

By the way, all of my complaining about waiting has nothing to do with Home Depot's service. It's simply about my own impatience on waiting. We've had pretty good experiences with Home Depot, and the protocol that they go through is pretty much what we would get through any other store. If I didn't have a good experience with Home Depot, I wouldn't bother writing a blog post about it. That's what customer service reps are for.

With that said, we have been living on plywood floors for a month. I guess I'm just getting tired of it, though we aren't suffering in anyway--unless you call the occasional splinter in a foot suffering.

First we had to wait for someone from Home Depot to come out and measure out a floor plan. That took about a week of waiting. From there, we had to wait on a phone call from Home Depot to help us order our flooring. That took a few days, and even then, we didn't bother waiting. (You know me.) We called them.

So then the order was finally in and we had to wait an additional week and a half for the shipment to arrive at the store. After waiting a week, we finally called to find out the status. It seemed like it was moving right along (from Virginia to Minnesota) and it arrived in Minneapolis on Friday. I was all excited until I read a notice that said "mechanical delay", which could have meant anything.

Of course, that had to happen on a Friday which meant that nothing would progress over the weekend. So I waited impatiently to check out that status on Monday (which is today) and I finally got the notice from UPS that it arrived at the Chaska store! I waited a few hours for their phone call, as I was told they would call once they saw that it had "arrived" in their system, but so far, no phone call. So again--you know me!--I called them.

A lot of good that did. I got transferred from person to person and ended up leaving a voicemail on someone's phone and I'm not sure that was even the right person. Back to waiting.

It seems so trite to be so impatient and troubled over flooring installation when there is so much more going on in other people's lives. My sister, for instance, is supposed to have her 9th baby tomorrow. And my brother just left today for Africa to have the biggest adventure of his life. And my mom is experiencing the loss of a friend's son as she tries to help her through her grief. And me, I'm worried about flooring.

It isn't just the waiting for flooring. It's the constant rain, the flooding, the mosquitoes. It's the adjustment of our strict budget as we make our first house payment tomorrow. It's trying to get used to shopping at these small stores that have only a limited amount of things and waiting until Wednesday to do the big shopping for the things you weren't able to get. And it's also driving around, realizing there's no where to go, when you want to stop at a church to pray, except there is none because there is no adoration around here. That is what I miss the most. It's what I used to do at our old house--just stop at our church's chapel whenever I needed to "talk" to God with a problem, or feeling sad and lonely, or just felt like stopping by when I was out on an errand. I really miss that.

So somehow I have focused on flooring as an answer to my sadness-for now, at least. I keep thinking to myself, "once the floor comes in, it will be so much easier." It will be so much easier to keep up with. No more worrying about mud on the bathroom floor from all the plywood dust that gathers on our shoes and feet. No more having to make sure all the clothes are picked up in the girls room to keep them from getting ruined from the black tar that is still stuck to the plywood. And of course, no more splinters!

I know better than to use "things" as the answer to my problems though. In fact, as I was driving home, I had the thought that a person should never try to look forward or count on "things" to make life more interesting, or exciting. Because once that thing is over--whether it's a trip, flooring or a new car, you have nothing else but to wait for the next exciting "thing" in your life to come up. And in the meantime, there is waiting. And in the waiting times is when we tend to get impatient, depressed and anxious.

I saw this on Facebook the other day, and I think it's very true.


And so that's how I'm dealing with waiting--waiting for floors, waiting for a "new normal" waiting to finally feel settled. Without dwelling on sadness (that's useless) and without too much expectation. Just trying to live in the present moment.

It should be enough.

4 comments:

  1. I would not want to live on plywood sub-flooring either. And getting splinters aren't fun, and they can hurt. I hope your new floor comes soon, so you'll have a safer floor and one that you like.

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  2. One more thing, do you mean Baby Dominic Pio has since become a BIG brother??? I your sister's pregnancy and delivery was without health problems. Please let us know as much as you can. I wish your sister still blogged, but understandable if she chooses not too.

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  3. I meant to write I hope your sister's pregnancy . . .

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    1. Yes, Dominic is big brother now to Baby Agnes. She was born (I think) on July 2nd by C-section. Both she and Mary are doing very well! Mary isn't much of a blogger but I'll try to let you know how Dominic is doing whenever I get news...

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