If you think about it, we all have that THING we do not tolerate under any circumstance. It might be a word that sends us over the edge, or maybe a certain action of someone that makes us crazy or it could be not living without a/c under any reason what so ever! The last one is my husbands. Thursday night I was awakened by the sound of muffled grunting and cursing coming from the bilge of the boat. Once I wiped the sleep from my eyes and went looking for my better half, I found him covered in sweat muttering obscenities to the pipe that would not come off of the a/c compressor in a tiny hole of the boat. You see, the a/c had shut itself off and was giving us the “code” that meant there was something blocking the flow of water. This lack of flow does not allow the boat a/c to work. So, that meant my half way handy hubby was in search of the foreign object that was keeping him from his sleep and his cool air. After many attempts to unclog the intake he looked up at me and said, “go pack your bags and wake the kids we are going to the Marriott!” He got out of the bilge, took a cool shower and then left to check us in! As I was awaking the kids, (btw it is now 4 am) and putting the bag on the dock he came to us with a big smile on his face and said, “Who wants pancakes?”
I really love that I have a husband who takes the worse situation and tries to make it happy somehow! He believes that it is our job to take the bad and make it good! What a great attitude we are teaching our children. I see the beauty of this because I was raised the other way. My father would take the lack of air conditioning to teach us to “deal with stuff.” His way to deal would be to learn to suffer through. I prefer the philosophical approach of making it positive rather than “getting by”.
I have seen my Dad’s way in action most commonly at the airport or when people are traveling. People become totally unglued the minute anything negative happens. (ie a delay, cancelled flight or being help overnight) Jack told me once when we first started traveling as starving college students that. “the trip begins the minute you leave the house.” If you keep that attitude and make the best of whatever they through at you I promise you will have a much better time and you might not die of a heart attack in the mean time!
In any case, we had pancakes and then checked into the Marriott where we stayed until they got the a/c fixed on Friday afternoon. Since the Marriott was so kind to only charge us for Friday and let us check-in at 4am we basically got 2 nights for the price of one. The other good part was that I was keeping a recipe on hold to try once I got an oven and they had one so look what Mama made! You have to try these…they are unbelievably good. Perfect for a sleepover or a brunch!
Doughnut Muffins
For the muffins:
1-3/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 lb. 11 oz. (6 cups) all-purpose flour
1 Tbs. plus 2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla paste
1-3/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1-2/3 cups milk
1/4 cup buttermilk
8 oz. (16 Tbs.) unsalted butter; more as needed
2 cups sugar
2 Tbs. ground cinnamon
I am absolutely 100% in agreement with not being able to tolerate the lack of a working A/C!
Having traveled with you and Jack I can also vouch for the fact that Jack always keeps things funny and light-hearted which is completely the polar opposite of how dad handled things when we were kids.
Do you remember the horrid trip home from Colorado in the blizzard? Or the wonderful trip drving through the ice storm from Florida to Georgia at Christmas in 1989?
I wish I could forget those experiences!