There are monsters at my house. They are ugly and scary and hide in unexpected corners. One of the lurking monsters has been pretending to be a carpet shampooer. It is big and it is scary. My husband had always fought this particular monster. Since he left, that monster, just got bigger and scarier. It was yet another task I had to learn and conquer. The carpets were bad when I got back to the house this last winter and have grown much worse over the intervening months. I finally felt that I had no choice I had to face this particular monster. I am embarrassed to admit it, but I had never used the shampooer. My husband always took care of that. But it was just a carpet shampooer, how hard could it be?
The first obstacle was just getting in the shop. Just before Gerrald left he had taken a large pew from the Mission to refinish. He had only gotten it partially stripped when he left. I am still waiting for the Mission to come and get it since there is no way for me to take it to them. Unfortunately there is no real room for it in the shop. To open and close the door you have to shift this immense wooden pew. To get to anything you have to crawl over the top of the pew. So I opened the door partially, shoved my shoulder against the pew and shifted it far enough to open the door. Then I climbed up on the pew and began to look for the carpet shampooer. I found it behind the file cabinet and when I wedged myself behind the file cabinet I discovered another obstacle. That shampooer is HEAVY! I balanced myself on the back of the pew and wiggled behind the file cabinet and snagged the shampooer with one hand. Well I soon discovered there was no way in the world I had enough strength in one arm to lift that shampooer. So I wiggled and twisted until I could get both hands on it and inch by inch lifted in out and drug it across the back of the pew and finally out of the shop.
By that time I was sweaty, covered with cobwebs and dirt and had discovered yet another obstacle. When Gerrald put the shampooer away he had left the dirty water in it. I discovered this when I stumbled out of the shop and landed with the shampooer on top of me. The filthy, stinky, moldy (8 month old dirty water) cascaded over me. I sat there on the floor of garage, covered in filth, stinking to high heaven and said several pertinent things to my estranged husband.
So I wiped off what I could, put some clean dry clothes on and began to clean the shampooer so it could be used. If I wasn’t so determined to not let this monster defeat me, I would have given up by this time. But I kept at it and even figured out how to put hot water & soap in it and even operate it.
I have spent the rest of the day working on the carpets and they are actually beginning to look pretty good. It is certainly an improvement. In a few minutes I will wash it one last time and reverse the whole procedure to put it back in the shop. Well minus the part when I am sitting in a pool of stinky water. I think I will do it without that part.
I guess though there were parts of today that were difficult, it is good to have one of those monsters laid to rest. It gives me hope that I can defeat a few more of the monsters that have overwhelmed me in the past months.
“For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory." Deuteronomy 20:4
That is a good reminder that I do not fight these monsters alone.
Just Connie
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