Molson, My Personal Assistant

By Belinda

I was home for a much needed "catch up day," but not catching up as much as I'd hoped, when the phone rang. On the other end was a very pleasant voice belonging to a lady from our insurance company.

"Do you remember that letter we sent you a week or so ago?" she wanted to know. We needed to update our insurance based on the fact that we have done some home improvements.

I knew that the letter was somewhere in a pile on Paul's desk so I apologized for the fact that we hadn't got right on it.

"No worries," she said breezily, "you can answer the questions now and I will fill the answers in for you."

I had no idea then what a difference of opinion we had about what "no worries" meant, but I was soon to find out.

She started with a few easy questions and I began to relax a little, until she asked if we had fire hydrants on our street. Being someone who regularly walks a dog, you would think I would know the answer to that question, but honestly, I didn't. My friends will not be surprised at this. Ask me what colour the sky was or whether there was a sunset last night and I will know; fire hydrants, not so much. I felt as though I was back at a wooden desk in grade school, chewing a pencil and failing a test.

I had to know the square footage of various parts of the house, so, not wanting to keep her hanging on the line, I said that I would take the measurements and call her back.

Usually we have a couple of metal retractable measuring tapes around the house, but I looked in every nook and cranny and couldn't find either one. In all the house I could just find one measuring tape in my knitting bag, and it only went up to 6 feet.

Molson was alert and interested in my dashing up and down stairs and stood ready to join in whatever adventure was going on, but it was when I got down on my hands and knees to measure the dimensions of the rooms that he really thought this new game was fun. As I struggled to hold the tape in place at six foot increments, he got as close as he could and took to snuffling and licking my face and making me laugh so much that I couldn't get any words out. Telling him no, and to go and lie down, in between the giggles, just didn't carry enough authority to convince him that I meant it and so I struggled through the task with ever increasing laughter.

Eventually I had the rough measurements my insurance adjuster needed and called her office. She had left for the day.

Later that night at the dinner table at cell group I told Susan of my hilarious struggles to get the job done. She said, "But Belinda, you could just have measured the walls standing up you know."

"Oh...yes...well," I said, feeling very foolish all of a sudden; but it was so much more fun our way.:)

Paul, equally helpful, pointed out that we do have a fire hydrant, right across from our house.

Going downhill fast but happy in Belindaland!