Inertia
When faced with an obstacle, don't think, move the sucker.
Being a caregiver can be frustrating, so it’s important to savor the small victories.
Yesterday, I fixed a watercooler that had been out of action for months. It died suddenly a few weeks before my husband’s surgery, and we had pretty much decided it would need to be replaced or fixed. Replacing made more sense to me since the thing only cost a couple hundred dollars, and a repair would probably be cost-prohibitive.
I really couldn’t justify the expense of buying a new cooler, since I had a perfectly good faucet across the kitchen.
Trouble was, the hot water from the sink was not hot enough for tea or coffee. And yes, it’s true, I also own a gigantic stainless steel kettle but it simply takes up too much room in the terrible space I call my kitchen.
So we just left the water cooler/hot water dispenser to stare back at us, inert in all its stainless steel glory. Truth told, the sight of it has been bugging me for months. Should I get someone to cart it off to a Walle style burial ground?
That just seemed cruel to the water cooler that was only a couple of years old, and even worse for the environment.
So I decided I would give self-repair the good old college try. I studied YouTube fix-it-yourself videos, and read the manuals which told me to flick this switch and that before I tried anything more complicated. Nothing worked.
Then I read a post of Reddit that suggested maybe I should try just wiggling the bottom dwelling bottle around, checking the connections, etc. I tried this numerous times before I took the bottle out, and put the hose back in. I jiggled and wiggled, and nothing worked.
Until it did.
Suddenly, my beloved water cooler was back to normal, happily dispensing hot and cold water as if it had never stopped.
I felt positively chuffed. I rule.
This is only a short Substack to remind people that the enemy of everything is inertia, and the key to problem-solving is tenacity and determination.
Giving up isn’t a solution. Don’t listen to that little voice in your head saying you’re not smart enough. Try several solutions until you find the sweet spot.
Give you another example. For the past few weeks, Scott has been struggling with his mobility. He found it difficult to walk, even to the bathroom with his cane. So he did what everybody does at one point — he just gave up.
This troubled me. He just stopped trying.
Inertia was killing him. He was getting weaker, and was even having trouble putting on clothes, or doing his daily hygiene routine. I recognized the signs. He was depressed and discouraged.
I truly felt helpless.
On Sunday, I saw that a neighbor was selling a Cobii which is essentially an elliptical for your feet and legs. You just sit in a chair, putting your feet on the paddles and go. My neighbor, a public servant, had bought it for $300 during the pandemic and no longer needed it because she was being summoned back to work.
I messaged her immediately, agreed to a $50 fee, got in the car and collected my prize. When I got home, I showed it to Scott, and his eyes lit up. Maybe this could help with my recovery, he said.
Within a few days, he was a new person. He was cycling to beat the band, and told me his legs felt stronger. But he was still have trouble with the cane.
“Why don’t you try the walker until you get your second surgery?” I suggested.
I saw the light go on in his noggin. He had used the walker to go to appointments but he had never thought to use it in house — believing it would set back his recovery. I brought him the walker, and he got up on his feet and walked around a bit. Pretty soon, he was beetling to the bathroom with no trouble whatsoever (except moving the damn dog who takes up half the living room).
Now you may say, “well, that was easy!”
But I say, no, it was not an easy decision for him. If I’d tried to suggest this before I got the Cubii, he would have refused to transition back to the walker.
The Cubii had changed his mindset.
Once in a while, when I am truly frustrated, I lift my eyes to the sky and say, “please God, give me a win”.
I got three this week. All thanks to tenacity, perseverance, and a couple of work arounds. Fuck inertia, I say. Give me another rock to move. I’m ready.