I may have stumbled upon a new rule. It’s something that happens fairly consistently, although it’s not a big problem. It involves trips to the store. Over the course of the past year or so, with COVID restrictions in place, I did most of the shopping. Lion was, essentially, trapped in the house. A few times, he wanted to go with me just to get out of the house. He didn’t necessarily want to go in the store because that was potentially more dangerous. Understandably, he had cabin fever, and any time out of the house was appreciated. The problem was that he’d tell me he wanted to go with me and ask me to wait. And ask me to wait. And ask me to wait. And then he’d say maybe it was better if I just went alone. Damn! I could have been there in back in all the time I waited for him.
He had a prescription ready on Monday. I put in the refill for the dog’s drug at Costco to be ready when we were in the vicinity. There was no rush. Maybe we’d go Tuesday. When I got home, Lion said he hadn’t heard from me, so he assumed we weren’t going. Fair enough. We planned to go Wednesday. Lion was tired. Fair enough. We are planning to go tonight. I’ve been nursing a headache this morning, but that won’t stop me from completing my appointed rounds.
Indeed, it doesn’t really matter what day we go. Indeed, it’s perhaps a tiny bit easier if I go straight from work rather than stopping home first. Why is that? I’m already out and about. Once I go home, things slow down. Do I want to go back out again? Not so much. But I will because we planned it. But as the days drag along, I’m more inclined to go by myself to get it done. Of course, that doesn’t solve the problem of Lion being trapped in the house. But it gets it done. And, given my propensity for inertia, getting it done is a huge thing.
I’m not sure how this translates to a rule. If he pushes something off X times or for Y hours, he should get punished? Maybe it’s a growling offense to start with. I’m sure he doesn’t realize he does it as often as he does. However, he wants me to come up with rules and address things that bother me, so here we are. Yes, I did agree not to go last night because he was tired. No, it really wasn’t a big deal to wait another day. But I can see us sliding into tomorrow by saying it’s just another day, and I work a half-day on Friday, and that would be a better day to go…and…and…and… Maybe it is a better day to go, but when we start on Monday and push it to Friday, it’s getting annoying. I could have stopped by the store to pick up lettuce and other salad things he wanted, but I didn’t because I kept thinking we were going to the store to pick up his prescription. Each night I don’t plan dinner because I think we will grab something while we’re out. Argh!
Again, it’s not a big deal. But it is an annoyance. And I’m supposed to beat those annoyances out of him, right? Right.
[Lion — It seems fair to me. I’m not sure exactly what the rule should be, but it sounds like something Mrs. Lion should enforce.]
