January 25 - The Small Things

In my last post I wrote about the anxiety of night blindness, but many times it is the small things in life that can trip me up. For the most part, those small things are just annoyances and frustrations, and I suppose that is what I want to tell you about today.

Lyle and I have never been to Maui before this trip, and so the place where we are staying is unfamiliar to us both. Because he is able to see, Lyle has overcome all the little obstacles presented by unfamiliarity.  I have not.  There are way too many buttons I cannot distinguish on the remote control for the TV. There are black knobs and settings on the black surface of the stove and flat black settings on the surface of the microwave. There is the different lock on the door to the balcony which as yet I cannot open.  But let me tell you about the sink!

Last night after we finished eating, I decided to make myself useful by washing the dishes. Did you know that there are some sink plugs that fit in the sink equally well right side up as they do upside down? I had no trouble actually washing the dishes, but when it came time to pull the plug, it simply wouldn’t come out. In the end, I had to call Lyle. With infinite patience, he scooped all the water out of the sink, removing the pressure on the plug, and finally we were able to pry it out of the hole with a knife.  Turns out this plug is shaped like a dome with a knob on top.  I put it in the sink the other way around, which meant it was now like a bowl without a grip, and the water in the sink forced it firmly down to seal.

As I say, sometimes it is the small things that can trip me up.