About two times a year, I dog/house sit for some very nice people in Tarzana. For the last 10 days, I stayed at their house to make sure the dog is all right. Her name is Riley, and she is very old, and has arthritis, and pancreatitis, and all kinds of ailments. Her owners need someone to stay with her, at least at night, because she gets a little scared if no one is there. Needless to say, this dog doesn't do very much. She can't really run anymore, and she lays on her bed and sleeps a lot. She gets silly every once in a while, and will roll around, and try to play with a chewed up tennis ball, but she can't do that for very long, since she is in pain. I give her baby aspirin in a piece of cheese every once in while to ease that. It's an easy job.
Some of the time I am there, Jason will come by and stay with me, because, like the dog, I get scared when I am by myself, and besides barking loudly, the dog can't do much to protect me if something happens. A few days ago, in the early afternoon, Jason and I were standing near the steps to the living room, about 15 feet from the kitchen. Riley was laying on her bed, minding her own business, just as we were, when suddenly...CRASH!!!!!!!!!!
The old, arthritic dog, who can't run anymore, RAN out the back door into the back yard, scared shitless! Jason and I, scared shitless as well, witnessed something that really shouldn't happen while I am house sitting for people who are gone, and should be able to trust me. A GLASS shelf in one of the GLASS WINDOWED cabinets in the kitchen randomly fell down, causing the cabinet door to open, and all of the lovely plates and bowls on that level to shatter all over the counter and floor, losing their lives. We stood, mouths open, in shock. I remember the noise was so loud, and it all happened so fast, I couldn't believe it. All those nice, expensive Williams Sonoma dishes, shattered into tiny pieces all over their kitchen. I started to cry. Jason asked me why I was crying, and I think I blurted out something like, "I am so fucked! They will never trust me again!!" He reassured me that it was an accident and we had nothing to do with it, and if they didn't believe it, then screw them. I agreed, and calmed down. We swept and vacuumed the counter and the floor about three times to make sure every last bit of the glass was cleaned up. I mean, not only for our safety, but the dog's, and their 14 month old baby, who would be returning with them in a few days...
Jason and I were able to salvage a couple of small plates that hadn't broken in their fall, and we tried to speculate why it all happened in the first place. We tried putting the glass shelf back into the cabinet (amazingly it didn't break) to no avail. It wouldn't go back in, so we set it on the counter. Also to our surprise, the glass window of the cabinet did not break, so we were relieved for that. But I had no idea what to tell these people who trusted me with their house, that the most random, unexpected thing happened while they were gone, and I had nothing to do with it.
Meanwhile, Riley was laying outside on the porch, in the 80 degree heat, which is not good for her, so we tried to get her to come inside. She was not about to do it. It took us about 10 minutes to get her to come in, but she wouldn't go near the entry way, because that's where she was when the ordeal started. I had to move her bed and water into the living room, because we had to leave soon to run some errands, and she wouldn't have stayed in the house otherwise. Later that evening, she relaxed and got over the trauma, thankfully.
I waited a day or two to tell them what happened. The guy texted me, checking in to see how the dog was, so I figured I had better text him back right then with the details. In the longest text I have ever written I explained and apologized profusely, hoping they wouldn't want me to pay for it all...I waited for the longest two minutes ever to hear back from him. He said, "Are you kidding me? I don't believe this, we are holding you responsible for ALL damages, how can we trust you again?!" Ha, nah, I'm just kidding with you all, he actually said: "Don't worry about it, we have had problems with the cabinets before, and the shelves have fallen out about three other times, and we have had to replace dishes before." Oh my God. First of all, I was thinking, thank the Universe for that, and second, I was thinking, wow, this has happened so many times I would think they would have replaced the shelves by now. Either way, I was so relieved that it wasn't my fault.
When I picked this husband and wife up from the airport, the wife said she was already looking for an excuse to buy new dishes, so she thought this was perfect! Can you believe that? And to think, I cried for no reason over this. Wait, I cry for no reason over lots of things...oh well. *Faints*
--This post is dedicated to all the plates and bowls who lost their lives in the battle of Cabinets and Shelves 2010. Lest we forget their bravery for having stayed in the cabinet for as long as they did, knowing the shelf wanted to make sure they never saw the light of day again. May they rest in peace, in the San Fernando Valley land fill.
