One Grump, or Two?

Did I tell y'all we have a new coffeepot?

I mean, being as we're such Close Personal Friends and all, and share our Most Intimate Secrets, I figured I had. You have to admit that getting a new coffeepot is a momentous occasion, almost on the level of the birth of a grandchild or a wedding or some such thing.

It just isn't every day you go out and buy a coffeepot.

Now, lest you think me to be a Sally Spendthrift, let me tell you that the last coffeepot we had lasted NINE YEARS. An amazing feat, that. Nine years of daily pots of coffee. Nine years of making tea...because we use the coffeepot to brew our iced tea as well. Nine consistently wonderful years of service. And due to that, as well as considering the utter QUALITY of the products made today (cough), I was not in the mood to purchase anything but the same pot. However, the new model of our old pot got such bad reviews I decided to change brands.

And therein lies my downfall.

My family has very particular tastes. They like Ragu Old World Style spaghetti sauce flavored with meat. No other spaghetti sauce will do. And LORD HAVE MERCY if I add any crazy things like ... oh, ONION to the hamburger I combine with the sauce.

Hidden Valley Ranch salad dressing is the only one my husband will eat. No off brand is allowed, and none of those weird "with bacon" types, thankyouverymuch. Salads are not allowed to have any "funny looking" greens in them. And when I make Chicken Marsala I have to leave the "marsala" off of the chicken for two of my brood. One won't eat baked potatoes. One doesn't like cheese unless it's in an omelet. One hates whitefish. A different one hates shrimp.

You can see the problems I might have introducing anything NEW in the realm of culinary delights to the fam. Nine times out of ten they'll turn their collective noses up at whatever nouveau cuisine I attempt to feed them. Because of this, I have resigned myself to cooking the same meal the same way every time I do it. Our menu varies very little. (Insert a collective YAWN here.)

So you can see the apprehension I had in introducing the new coffeepot.

And just as I thought, it didn't pass muster with the Picky McTastersons.

"The tea just doesn't taste the SAME," they whined. And they kept on whining for the entire month we've had the new coffeepot. They've even gotten downright MEAN about it.

Since it was too late to turn the coffeepot back in and get any kind of refund, and since I don't relish trying to purchase the old model of our old coffeepot on eBay or from some black market coffeepot dealer under a bridge at midnight, I decided to try a new tactic. I bought a Mr. Coffee Iced Tea Maker. And I told them if it didn't work the way they wanted it to, they could find their own solution to the problem because I had done all I was going to do, and if that wasn't enough they could just drink WATER.

I'm just so very kind and caring that way.

"Well golly, I sure appreciate knowing all this," you say, "but WHAT'S THE POINT???"

As you know if you've read the blog for very long, my boss left for another job last October. He was a great boss, and a real joy. I worked with him for three years before he decided to leave.

And now I'm going to have to break in a new boss. He starts the 22nd of this month.

The problem is that I like things the way they have always been. I don't want things to change. I don't WANT to break in a new person. I want things the way they were before. And I may just get really grumpy about the whole thing if I have to do it any way other than the way I want to do it.

I don't want any onion in my spaghetti sauce, and I want the tea to taste the same as it did with the old pot.

Notice the similarity?

Here's another: God is telling me the same thing I'm telling my family. "I've provided this new vessel for you. You can make it work (which is His will), or you can find another way on your own (which is MY will)." Gee. It doesn't take a rocket scientist or a brain surgeon to see what I'm supposed to learn here, now does it?

So maybe the family and I will both learn something through this. Maybe we need to try to find a new normal for us, both in the brew, and in the boss.

I remember a song we used to sing in church. The lyrics go something like this:

Have Thine own way, Lord,

Have Thine own way,

You are the Potter,

I am the clay.

Mold me and make me,

After Your will,

While I am waiting,

Yielded and still.

That's my prayer today.

Psalm 40:8
I desire to do Your will, O my God; Your law is within my heart.

Psalm 143:10
Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God; may Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.