The Lazy Always Works Double

Today I am being interviewed over at Misadventures with Andi. I hope you’ll click over if you don’t already follow Andi’s blog.

This is my carrot soup that I talked about in my last post. Huge success, largely thanks to Young Knight’s (and his Papa’s) willingness to wash all the runts that had been pulled out of the ground. I then had only to peel them and cut off all the parts that had been chewed on.

But honestly, if it had been left up to me? I would have left the carrots in the ground to rot. It seemed like alotta work to me and I’m pretty lazy.

I think I’ve mentioned somewhere my favorite Mexican proverb: “The lazy man always works double.” My husband likes to put the emphasis on the always and I like to constantly test the proverb to see whether it’s true.

In just the last two days, I have broken a nutella jar because I didn’t secure the lid on tightly and when I picked it up, the jar and its contents crashed to the floor. If it hadn’t been for that mess however, I might never have gotten around to mopping the kitchen floor, so it’s win-win.

I also accidentally shoved a tupperware off the counter because the dishes were piled up too tightly, sending the half empty can of tomato purée that was in it out into the dining room, and spewing it’s contents the entire way. I had already mopped so I had to clean that one up on the spot.

Today I was in a hurry to clean the oven before baking because all the grease was starting to smoke, lending a charred flavor to everything I put in there. (This only happened because I never bother to cover up the meat I roast in there). Anyway, I was in such a hurry I grabbed the blue can and sprayed the foam all over the entire inside of the oven (holding my breath the whole while against the fumes) before slamming the oven door shut and looking at the can.

It said, “For the Bathroom. Anti-Calcaire.”

I was also trying to use up some leftovers for lunch today so I stir-fried the leeks and zucchini to serve with fish and crème fraiche over rice. But the vegetables didn’t look appetizing like that, so I decided to purée them. Of course, instead of having a clean counter (because I always tidy right up after myself) and pulling the cuisinart forward so that the pan would not bump into the cupboards as I was pouring the contents in, I left it right where it was and spilled the leeks all over the floor and on the counter behind the cuisinart.

The lazy man aaaalways works double.

Sir on the other hand …

One of the most endearing (and most frustrating) qualities about him is the fact that he is not rash. He is methodical and careful in everything he does. And it’s a good thing he doesn’t end up working double from being lazy because he is so methodical (and sloooow) in what he does the first time around.

For instance, see this mold problem we are developing in the office? We had the same problem, only worse in our bedroom downstairs. Sir figured it was because the cement baseboard was not insulated and so the cold outside meeting the heat inside was causing the walls to develop condensation, and over time, mold.

So he built and stained a wooden baseboard around the two trouble-spot walls in our bedroom and filled them with insulation that protects our baseboards. Now our bedroom looks so cozy and clean.

The pipe that contains electrical wires sticking out from the wall? Not a problem! He just cut a notch on the inside so that he could still secure the wood to the baseboard.

And he does many things like that. This Ikea shelving unit we bought –He wanted to fill in the rest of the space between the window and wall, so he added his own attachment that makes it look like a built in cupboard.

Built-ins are very uncommon in France. Cupboards just don’t exist here, or at least very rarely. But he took the time to build (sand and stain) a cupboard in our laundry room that holds all our sheets, towels, coats, products and medicine. It’s only missing the doors, which he hopes to get to this week.

Or something like this wooden beam here that lends its support to the ceiling in replacement of the wall we knocked down. He thought, why not add some open shelves on either side; otherwise it’s just a beam that serves no other function. So he did this.

My methodical man. He’s so “not rash” that when he was deciding whether or not he wanted to marry me, the fact that he was madly in love with me (if I do say so myself) had no weight in the matter. He set aside an afternoon to think it over, weighing the pros and cons.  I think he finally came up with something like this.

“True, she’s far from perfect (long pause as this is being contemplated) but I can live with her foibles.  I think I’ll marry her anyway.”

It may sound unromantic to you, but to me it means that it is very unlikely he will ever go back on his decision. Plus he laughs good-naturedly when I tease him about his own foibles (that I think I can live with too).  Somehow that seems romantic to me.

Anyway, I digress. On a day like today, when I asked him if he would finally hang the pictures up so we could get rid of the box in the stairwell, he completely disappeared until lunch time. I finally found him in the garage looking for the proper materials to restore this. 

It’s the original frame that goes with the Gulacsy that was ruined then restored in his grandfather’s fire. (This house fire also took much of his grandfather’s own artwork, as well as many other valuables).

Gulacsy was a Hungarian painter who was a friend of his grandfather’s family. His grandfather was allowed to take the two paintings of his own parents out of the country in exchange for donating the rest of Gulacsy’s work to the country. His mother’s portrait was completely destroyed in the fire, but his father’s painting just had some smoke damage that was mostly reparable.

Sir is trying to replicate the burgundy, black and gold of the frame to its original brilliance. He also wants to make a frame for the mock Kisling and another mock Gulacsy he has. So this whole hanging frames project is on hold for today until he does all this extensive prep work, which in the end will take much more time than the project itself.

Endearing. And frustrating.

But it makes me think how perfect he is for me as one who is always working double. This means that in our marriage we accomplish very little perfectly about half of the time, and we accomplish everything else with alacrity the rest of the time.  The tools of success for a match made in heaven.

Perhaps the proverb shouldn’t read “The lazy man always works double.” Perhaps it should read, “Well, if you’re going to be lazy, you’d better choose your spouse well.”

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