Trina Machacek: Ignoring the obvious

I have the cutest little candy dish on a counter in my kitchen. It is clear glass, holds about a package of Hersey’s cookie and cream chocolate kisses and maybe a few dark chocolate caramel Rolos candies. The thing that makes it so cute is that it has little glass feet on it. I added it to my menagerie of dishes and do dads that found a home with me along my life’s trail.

The way all of us ladies have collected things. My life today is somewhere between a crystal candy dish and a paper bowl. Yes, that might sum up the life of every woman in the world. As time goes by, we move from fancy to fun to practical. I am not to the full practical stage yet. But the wind is blowing that direction for sure. Moving on.

My snazzy little dancing footed candy dish sits on the end of a counter that is between the kitchen and the dining room table. The dining room table at my house is where a lot of chitty chatting goes on. Getting to the table requires most of my guests to come through the kitchen from the back door. I had a friend once that told me, “back door friends are the best.”

As with so many rural homes, the back door is used about 98.7564 percent of the time. So yes, to me, back door friends are the best. When someone comes to visit, they usually skitter by my inviting candy dish. What I love, truly love about my guests is that they are comfortable enough to grab a candy or six from that little footed bowl as they go by. How cool is that.

To me it is an ultimate compliment when someone feels that comfortably at home in my home. But! Yes, a candy coated “but.” Then there are a few that go by, look and in trying not to look they seem to ignore the obvious. Those I usually just offer candy to. How many times in a day do you think you ignore the obvious?

For example. Do you ever walk by a clothes hamper, see something that didn’t make it in at all or just part of the way in. And you just keep walking? Ignoring the obvious. All it would take would be to stop, bend and finish the job the last person didn’t finish? How about going to work and even though you may want a cup of coffee or a glass of water from the water cooler, it’s nearly empty.

So, you ignore the obvious and skip the drink, so you don’t have to make more coffee or change the water bottle. Trust me when I say someone is watching you walk by. We have all either walked by, or watched the next guy walk by. Being human is such a show. There may be different players and different acts being acted out, but the show keeps on playing.

Ignoring the obvious is not always a bad thing. I like to look the other way when some household or yard chores are needing to be done. Like dusting the bottom shelves of a table. I might take a quick swipe at the front of the shelf, but to go all the way to the back? My ignore button is front and center just waiting to be pushed.

Or getting the last mow of my yard. I am there now. The last mow of the season is upon me. I seem to be playing a game in my head. I even used our good friend, Google, obviously. Yes, I googled to find advice of how long to leave my lawn over winter. I was trying to convince myself it isn’t being lazy just a good gardener to leave the lawn just a bit longer than usual.

Well just like all the other things on the internet. You look long enough and someone, somewhere at some time has written the answer you really want to find. Yes, most said I should have mowed to the regular length. But! Yes, an obvious “but.” I finally found one guy who reported and said leave your lawn a bit longer going into the winter. Hey, I lucked out. He even said to not clean out my flower beds. I like this new friend.

Haha, he wrote via a google response to my question that I should leave everything longer and alone. His reasoning was so the little bugs and bees and worms and spiders all have little winter habitats. I’m good with that. Of course, I totally agree. If you could see my yard, you would say that’s quite obvious Machacek. Happy fall y’all.

Trina Machacek lives in Diamond Valley north of Eureka. Her books are for sale at www.theeurekacountystar.com or email her at itybytrina@yahoo.com.