Do it right the first time

One time when I was up in Maryland, I bought a big bag of frozen blueberries. Now this was a big bag.

I felt along the top when I was first opening it and I could tell it could be re-zipped closed… and so I ripped open the top of the bag. But once I had done that, I had made a big mistake. This was one of those bags where the opening is really on the front of the bag and you open it on the front and then the zip lock closure works along the front flap. Too late for that now.  Because I had ripped open the bag from the top, the zip lock closure no longer worked… and now I had to roll the bag up and clip it with a clothes pin.

The next day I go to get out the frozen blueberries from the freezer and the clothes pin catches on the wire shelf and pops off and blueberries go jingling down through the wire shelves of the freezer like a pinball machine and go spilling out onto the floor.

At this point, the Party Gus (who has been putting the Gus into gusto since 2020) springs into full alert mode. I have to get down on the floor and box out the Gus Bus. (Later, Hannah tells me that blueberries are actually good for dogs and it would have been okay if Gus had eaten some of the blueberries.) But at that point in the morning, I had no idea what obnoxious fumes would be coming out of the Gus Station if he had gotten hold of some of those blueberries. So I am boxing him out while trying to sweep up blueberries at the same time.

Besides all this, I am having to keep another eye on Gibby Boy, a golden retriever who also belongs to Hannah, and make sure he doesn’t get into the blueberries. Even though Gibby is much more laid back, it is also almost a guarantee that if Gibbs eats something out of the ordinary, you will see it again.

Reflecting about this whole situation, it’s interesting that if I simply follow instructions and do what I am supposed to do and do things right the first time, how much more simple things go and how much trouble I save myself.

So as we go through this day, it might behoove us to take our time and do what we need to do and do it right the first time.