Last spring some time I was in Kohl's with a $5 off $5 coupon, and I wandered around until I found the thing I was supposed to buy, which was a solar garden lantern. I'm getting better at this with buying things-- finding what is just right and then going with that. I kind of wish I were so confident in picking out people to be friends with, but people are not things and money is much simpler (and in some ways more dangerous) than exchanges of friendship, so perhaps I should be content.
Anyway, I brought it home and then set it by my door to wait until I figured out exactly where in the garden I wanted to put it. I wanted it to be useful, but I also didn't want to attract mosquitoes close to the front door.
But I also-- and this is the extremely silly part, but it's funny and I'd rather make someone laugh than make them think I'm never ridiculous-- I also hesitated to put it out because I was afraid that the weather would get to it. The garden lantern. That was designed to be out in the weather. So, as I mentioned, I propped it in its corner between my front closet and my front door, and periodically it would fall over, and I would think to myself that I should put it out, and I would worry again about the weather, and I wouldn't do it.
Then last Thursday or so, I realized that while it was designed to deal with the weather, it wasn't designed to be tipped over and fall on the ground repeatedly, and that I should just put in in a spot already. You see, unlike lighting designed for the indoors, this garden lantern didn't have anything flat to rest on; it had a pole with two spikes at the end, meant to be driven into the ground. So I took it out and within about three seconds realized that the perfect spot was just inside the garden gate, and I felt very silly for not having put it there before. And I was so pleased with how it looked as I went out for my walk on Sunday evening that I took a picture of it as I left the house, and that is the picture that I show you now:
I suppose there's some useful moral to be learned from all this, though I'm not quite sure what. I'm just thankful that my silliness didn't result in the poor lantern being broken without ever having been used. The sight of it brings me happiness every time I see it.
