Lids

In January 2005, I realized that I have been writing this column, “I Was Just Thinking” for fifteen years. It has appeared in the Buford Free Delivery for the last ten but it started out as a monthly addition to The Trails (Norcross) neighborhood newsletter that I put out as part of my duties as the association secretary. One month I had a space to fill so I wrote a little essay, titled it and then I did it again the following month. When it occurred to me that I might turn it into an ongoing column instantly I was awash with self-doubt. How would I ever find enough to write about? How long would it be before I ran out of material?

To hedge against the dreaded writer’s block, I spent a dedicated two weeks and whipped out a year’s worth, twelve columns in all. This gave me a nice comfort zone so I’d never have to sweat missing a deadline. I hate missing deadlines. In time, eventually, I grew comfortable enough to use up all my back-log and then depended only on making notes whenever some topic sparked my interest. Sometimes, cleaning out my old computer files, I still run across my notes and wonder what could have possibly been going on in my head at the moment I so cryptically typed them down. Column Ideas – Vanilla, Brass, Junk, Moving, Weeds. Obviously, I should have been more specific.

Even as the years rolled on and I found my groove wherein there was no minutia that escaped my scrutiny and about which I couldn’t pound out a minimum of six hundred words, I still harbored a tiny reservation that one day I’d finally reach the edge of the world and draw a big blank. To insure against this I have always kept a “reserve” idea for a column. My fall-back position. I’m amazed that only once have I had to pull up the reserve and use it. And this was because of a family crisis, not writer’s block. So, important to me, psychologically speaking, has been this safety net, that immediately that I had used it, I replaced it with another. Thus far I have not used the replacement.

Until today.

But today, I am not using my back-up column because I am out of ideas, I am using it because I need to air out this annoyance. I need some commisseration, some sympathy. Some suggestions about how to solve this issue. I need help.

This column is about food storage lids. You know what I am talking about.

Today, after lunch, all I wanted to do was put away the soup. Ron watched as I dug fruitlessly in the two drawers where I store those assorted sized plastic bottoms and lids. I’d pull out a bottom that was the correct size and then five lids that didn’t fit it. Soon I had the whole counter top covered with bottoms and lids – none of which matched each other.

Ron suggests that bottoms and lids should be tethered together somehow. I’m not so sure this is the answer. I really don’t have an answer, just questions. Is this a modern problem? I don’t recall my mom having this bottom/lid issue. She recycled mayo jars. Maybe it’s just me.

Anyway, I feel better for having brought this out into the open. The soup is still in need of a lid and I’ll come up with something. There’s always the mayo jar I washed out last week and saved. At least it has its lid. Ironic isn't it?

And then, of course, I’ll need to come up with another back-up column topic to replace this one. No problem.

Socks.