New Year - Same Old Stuff

I thought, perhaps, that in the new year, nothing else would break down or get broken or destroyed. That new year's resolution didn't last long!

I was excited last Saturday, after a morning of counseling at church, to sit and watch the NFL playoff games that night. The only thing Teresa asked me to do was to pick up a couple couches from a friend who was giving them to us. No problem. So, I stop by their house and pick up the smaller couch, since the larger one wouldn't fit in the car. It wasn't too difficult to get that couch downstairs, with a little finagling and taking some paint off walls that had been recently re-done. Oh well, one down. We also had to take up the couch that had been downstairs, since we were selling it and making room for these we were receiving. We got up most of the sectional, but just had the hide-a-way bed part left.

It wasn't too hard to find a different friend to loan me his truck so that I could pick up the larger couch. However, I knew I would need help getting that one down the stairs, so I asked my friend who was giving me the couch if he would come over for a few minutes and help me get it down. Little did he, or I, know that those "few minutes" would turn into a few hours, ending in utter failure and destruction!

He graciously offered to come help, even though he had other places to go, and had, just that morning, run a 32 mile marathon (yes, I said 32 miles). If I had done that, not only would I be unavailable to help anyone move couches that day, I would unavailable for anything, except laying around and sleeping, and probably some moaning in pain. But, this is a nice guy and he came over. The first project was to get the smaller, hide a way bed out of the basement. An hour later, it was up the stairs, but our stair decor was a little altered.

We got stuck getting it up the steps; and at some point, it began to break through the wall. We did get the couch out, but only because the huge hole in the wall now allowed some more wiggle room. We also took off one of the light switches (broke it off, that is) so that the lightswitch that is still there in the stairway doesn't work now either. We have no lights in half of our basement. I guess if I get fired as a pastor, I won't be applying to be a mover. So, that was supposed to be the easy part.

The big couch just simply would not go down the stairs - no matter what we tried. We took off closet doors to give us more room near the doorway to the basement. We took of the door going down to the basement, plus the trim on the doorway. Still, we could not get it down. We took of the legs of the couch and tried it every way possible (at least the ones we could think of). My friend with the truck finally came over, wondering how my need to borrow his truck for a few minutes turned into over 3 hours. He helped us try to get the couch down as well. No luck.

We finally gave up and put it in the living room with all the other couches and chairs we already had. Now, we are going to have to change the decorating scheme or get new couches. Fun, fun, fun! My truck friend helped clear out the hole so that it can be repaired; and my other friend, who gave us the couches in the first place, helped us put things all back together.

We are left with inadequate seating downstairs, too much seating upstairs, painted chipped off walls, scratches on the hardwood floor, broken lightswitches, less lighting, and a huge hole in the wall. What a fun adventure to begin the new year!

I learned at least 3 things from this:
1. I know how to break things but not how to fix things
2. Stuff is stuff and it really doesn't matter (although it is tempting to think it does)
3. We have great friends - awesome friends!