How to Re-Engineer Our Grumpy Thoughts (Even Early in the Morning)

Audio version: https://venture-within.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Reenugineer.m4a

Navigating my mornings of making coffee, journaling, and meditating around Roo’s morning potty run has become somewhat stressful these days.

The success rate of getting it together in the morning to take her out before she pees on the floor is low. There are a few reasons for this undesirable time crunch I face each morning upon waking.

First, I don’t have a fenced-in yard, so I can’t just let her out without accompanying her. Secondly, there is little privacy from my close-by neighbors once I step onto my porch.

“Getting it together” means I have to find my glasses or contacts, dress appropriately, and locate her leash. If I’m taking her out with her leash in one hand, I’d prefer to have a coffee in my other hand. And so, prepping the French press is now a necessary urgency to my mornings as well.

In my half-blind stumble to find lenses, clothing, leash, and coffee — it sometimes takes more time than poor little Roo can wait. She puddles on the floor. Sometimes by the front door, sometimes trying to hide in the back office. Doesn’t matter where, no one wants to start their mornings by dealing with dog pee.

On one such drizzly morning gone wrong, I was midst-scolding Roo for her puddle when I heard a man walking on the path passing the front of my house, hollering hello.

It was 8:15 in the morning on a Saturday and stupidly early for friendly hellos from strangers.

I was in the middle of leashing Roo to a chair on the front porch, so I could clean up her mess, change out of my pajamas, and then do all the coffee-making things when the man stopped opposite me.

I ignored him and tended to Roo.

“Hello!”, he shouted cheerily. I looked his way and realized the man standing before me was my mechanic.

Mechanics in Nicaragua are an interesting sort.

They can fix everything. At least they will tell you that. This mechanic of mine I had called 8 days prior to help me fix the electronics in my windows. He assured me he was on his way and then never showed.