A few years ago on Mother’s Day, Faith (daughter) and I built a one-person-patio for my wife. The plan was to give The Editor a place to relax for a few minutes while she was working in her garden. I had found a small antique wrought iron bench, we set a small area of pavers and we bought a patio umbrella to provide some shade. The bench isn’t what anyone would call comfortable, but it’s OK for a few minutes.
That worked for a little less than 24 hours.
Maddie discovered the patio. Maddie LOVES the patio. We put Maddie’s cot on the pavers, we sit on the uncomfortable bench and we have a happy dog. It got to be too hard to keep moving and/or tilting the large umbrella, so The Editor bought two smaller umbrellas (one for the dog, one for the humans. To help ease the pain (literally) of the bench, we cut a foam kneeling pad to fit. We are leery of putting cushions on the bench for two reasons, 1) the bench is small and curved so it’s hard to find cushions, and 2) Maddie would probably lay on the bench if it was comfy.
Each year in the fall, I wrap up the bench and stick it behind the garage for the winter. A couple of weeks ago, Maddie started walking up over to the empty patio, as if to say, “the bench should be here by now.” Last week, Maddie started dragging me over to the wrapped-up bench behind the garage. She would walk over, stop and point. Message received, Maddie.
On Saturday, I was doing various tasks in the yard; I uncovered the bench and moved it to the “Maddie Patty” (yes, that’s what we call it now). Later that afternoon, I went out with Maddie and she took me over to the patio. She pointed her nose to the bench:
“You sit here but go get my cot first.”
It was warm and the sun was bright. After about 20 minutes, Maddie got hot and wanted to go inside. As we entered the porch, she looked over to where the umbrellas are stored.
This post is part of Linda G. Hill’s fun weekly series One-Liner Wednesday. If you have a one-liner, I’d encourage you to join in on the fun. You can follow this link to participate and to see the one-liners from the other participants.
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