Thinking Things Through

I'm not always good at thinking things through, but this latest "non-thinking-it-through" episode may rate as one of the very worst.

You may remember that a few weeks ago the transformer near our house got struck by lightening, causing a lot of damage to several things in our house.  Our dishwasher was not working well before the storm, but after the lightening storm, it didn't work at all.  Dishwashers don't last long in Tipton anyway, because of the hard water.  I researched dishwashers for over a week, then finally decided I was ready to order a dishwasher.

Before it was ordered, I showed my husband the dishwasher I wanted.  It had a handle on the front and the controls were along the top of the door, instead of on the front, where they're typically found.  I liked the way it looked, but also liked the idea of hanging a pretty dish towel from the handle.  My reasoning was two-fold:  decorative and useful.

This past week the new dishwasher came in.  It was partially installed one night and the completely installed the next morning.  I was so excited about the dishwasher, but before it was totally installed, I realized that the handle I was so proud of would probably make it impossible for the drawer to the left of it to open.  Sure enough - I was right. It wouldn't open!  In order for it to open, the door of the dishwasher has to be opened first!  I should have thought about this before, but I didn't.  It did make me feel better when I was telling a friend about it and she said that their builder did the same thing when he built their house!  If a professional could make this mistake, it didn't make my mistake seem quite as big. (at least in my mind, it didn't!)

You know?  I put a lot of thought into purchasing this new dishwasher.  I read reviews, looked at different models and brand names, compared prices, and finally, looked at several dishwashers in the store before ordering.  I thought I had done extensive research on the product.  My husband even measured the space to make sure it would fit with the new specifications.  After all of that, I still made a mistake.  It's a mistake that we will adjust to, but it was still a mistake.  There was more to know and more I should have known.

There's a lesson here about life.  No matter how much we "think" we know - there's always more to learn.  We can learn by reading.  We can learn by hearing.  We can learn by seeing.  We can learn by sharing.  We can learn by doing. We can learn by living.  And, we can learn by our mistakes.

Have a great Memorial Day!