Backseat - From Where I Sit

May 2006

By: Michelle

It's the little things that will get you

Nothing says "gotcha" like a brush-full of ripped out hair tangles, especially to those who have precious few locks still remaining. Any biker with more than one strand of hair blowing in the wind can tell you that it is the little things in life, like forgetting a hair tie, that can really hurt you. This is one of those not-so-gentle-reminders that the devil is in the details and forgetting the smallest of these buggers will nail you every time.

Well, in my case the buggers didn't nail me, they were more like glued buggers. The kind that appear when you add a fresh coat of white paint to the outside of your trailer door at sundown on a muggy Georgia summer evening...and leave the porch light on. For those of you who don't know that porch light means bug magnet in Georgia-speak, imagine pulling into the yard at daybreak to find your sparkling white door is now a salt and pepper shade of gray. By the way, this led me to learn another one of those little life's lessons - bug bodies can make a person use up a lot of sandpaper. Yep, it's the little things that leave the most lasting impressions. To this day, I swear I hear buzzing and my skin crawls every time I smell fresh paint.

Even before the unfortunate unintentional bug massacre, I had learned that size isn't everything. When I was merely 7 years old, our family had 2 dogs: a German Shepherd and a Miniature Daschund. Needless to say, Princess, the Shepherd was the ruler of the backyard while, Morle, the mini hotdog, was merely a forgotten occupant. That is, until the meter reader tried to get past Princess when she wasn't looking and the forgotten Morle, became fearless. Somewhere in New Port News, VA there is a retired meter reader with bite marks to prove that bigger isn't necessarily better.

In case I missed the point, a few years later Princess reminded me of the dangers of forgetting the little things in life again. Had I just uttered 5 little words in advance to my date: "We have 2 German Shepherds", my very very short-lived romance might have had a fighting chance and so much teen drama could have been avoided. Unfortunately, that small oversight caused my never-to-be boyfriend to mistakenly think the "mean dog" he had heard about was safely locked in the kennel when sauntered into the front yard. Before I could wave him back, the dog had spotted him. Making up for a lost opportunity years ago, she sunk her teeth firmly into his back-side as he and what was left of his dignity raced back to his car. Even simple words like "RUN!" or "@#$%" might have helped. Yet I the fact that I didn't yell them in a timely fashion caused another relationship to fall victim to tiny neglected details.

Just as all things come full circle in life, I knew that this theme would eventually rear its head with my children. The day finally came on a camping trip. My son and I decided to take to the wilderness alone. At the time he was 12 and I was 30-something. He was going to prove he wasn't too young and I was going to prove I wasn't too old. We were both going to prove we could do it without a man. All was going well until dinnertime. We packed the matches hot dogs, the charcoal, the paper plates, the utensils, even remembered the tin foil. It was the little container of lighter fluid we forgot.

We may have been forgetful, but we were not to be defeated. We just had to figure out what burns quickly and is readily available. That's where the bathroom paper towels came in. After emptying out all the paper products in both the Mens and Ladies room, we had a roaring fire that lasted a few seconds per towel. The results of our efforts were 4 flash-burned semi-unfrozen weiners with a unique "woodsy" flavor. We were still hungry but we learned a valuable lesson. We learned that he who forgets the little things in life is destined to be nauseous. We also learned a couple of valuable side lessons: I learned about new diet food product and my son learned to become cozy with the Boy Scout troop camping next to us. So in a round about way, we both got what we wanted, I didn't gain an ounce that night he got a full belly.

I guess even if you do sometimes forget the details, the universe will provide. As you go through I hope you succesfully avoid the things in life that will get you like annoying insects and angry dogs. Most of all, I hope you remember that it's not always just about the wide-open road you travel, sometimes its also about the little tiny spot of oil that might be right where you put your foot down to stop.

Thanks for visiting VirginiaWind.

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