Portland Family Deals With Vague Issues Of Uncertainty

A child tests the new mattress as an excuse to be in a bed other than his own.

Over the past two weeks we’ve purchased a new mattress, had a plumber reroute a gas line, and prepared nachos in a microwave.  Each of the tasks posed its own unique challenge of dealing with uncertainty. 

What do most people put on nachos anyway? Right, you don’t have a clue beyond the cheese. I ended up putting kale, salmon, and muenster cheese on one plate. I did so not because I live in the quaint hamlet of Portland, but rather I celebrate freedom from cheddar by conscientiously cheesifying with bold new flavors. In this regard I celebrate the uncertainty of an audacious culinary experiment  -- and it paid off in…decent tasteing food.

With the plumber I felt a bit uncomfortable describing what my house looked like, and what the problem was. I pride myself on having lots of words to use when certain other words are needed to tell stuff to people. I felt I came from a foreign land, lacking the proper knowledge and vocabulary to describe what was right in front of me. I didn’t know if I had a “slab house,” how thick or high the “curtain wall” was, or if my water heater had an automatic pilot restart.

Despite a patient attitude, the plumber had to preview the job. As he was a professional he was able to avoid outright mocking my lack of knowledge about our house. For that I will give him a great Yelp review.

The final major act of analyzing uncertainty came when we purchased a new mattress. We arrived at the store on a Saturday after lunch and planned on taking our time to make a purchase. We lay on so many beds I began to doubt what felt comfortable. I realize there is no right answer, but we ended up moving from a firm mattress to a medium one. So far so good, I’m sleeping well. 

I suppose the big life lesson from all of this is try to have some self-confidence and do the best you can – hardly a respite from a myriad of nagging doubt, but sometimes we get lucky.