Minor Frustrations

Our gardener took a bag of the kids beach/pool toys yesterday. He thought they were garbage because I left them on my front porch... even though the garbage can is in the back yard... and I always put the garbage in the garbage can... in the back yard. It's a green garbage can, a large garbage bin, and it can hold a ton of garbage.... like beach toys, if they WERE indeed garbage. Which they weren't. Did I mention the bag was orange. And mesh. And you could totally see through it.

It took me about 6 hours to notice that they weren't there anymore. I had Matt walk the perimeter of the house to see if they were "misplaced." We looked in all the usual places. We looked in the unusual places too. We talked with the maid and the driver. Nope. They didn't see the bright orange mesh bag with the beach toys, though they assure me that if it was left in, on, or around the garbage can they would have seen them.

We called the gardener. Well, the driver who speaks Tamil called the gardener. Guess what he told me (through translation of course)? The gardener thought they were garbage, so he took them home. Really? Go ahead, ask the gardener how often I leave garbage on the front porch. And let's be honest... did that big bag of beach toys REALLY look like garbage? How about the car seats that we leave on the front porch from time to time. Garbage too?

I gave the gardener 2 hours to have the toys back in my possession. No ifs, ands, or buts. I was irritated. He usually goes through the garbage that's in the big green bin and squirrels things away to take home at a later date. And he's usually so humble that he asks if he can take it. He's never been so bold or brazen to just take something that clearly was NOT garbage. Of course it didn't help his situation when we were told about all the stuff the gardener is balking about doing... like cleaning up and trimming trees. Apparently he doesn't like taking orders from the maid. Who speaks Tamil. Since I don't speak it, and I've hit my limit with pantomiming everything that needs to get done around the yard.

Six o'clock on the dot the doorbell rang and lo and behold, there was the gardener, with the big orange mesh bag of beach toys. Matt had the fun job of explaining why we were so upset, and reiterating that anything in, on, or around the green garbage bin is garbage. Everything else isn't. Oh and by the way, here's your additional list of responsibilities...

Minor frustrations. Only minor frustrations.

Do you even want me to begin telling the story of the maid buying the soap today? The exact same soap that's in the downstairs bathroom. The one I showed her... that's pink and has a semi-bearable smell. How does she come home with 3 different soaps, none of which was the pink one with the semi-bearable smell. Argh... Don't get me started.