A few weeks ago, I was on my typical, boring, traffic-filled drive home from work. There was really nothing special about it, except that due to nicer weather, traffic has picked up with everyone heading to their cabins up north.
With about 15 minutes left of the 35-40 minute commute, I spotted something interesting on the side of the four lane highway. As I drew closer, I noticed it was a chair, a yellow chair and I was quite intrigued by the look of it. A thought fleeted through my brain: "you should stop and pick it up." No way, was my immediate thought. I'm in the wrong lane of traffic, Highway 10 is a BUSY road and to stop on the side would be dangerous, and lastly, I didn't want to delay my arrival at home any longer. Then the other side of the argument kicked in: I actually WANT to stop, I've been feeling like I haven't been doing things that are "me" and this is exactly me. I'm sure it's bred in me to stop. My mom would've stopped and my Grandpa Rod probably would've stopped. And THAT settled it. I turned around at the next available location and off I went. I couldn't help but smile as I turned at the next light and pulled up next to the chair. (Thankfully, traffic had cooperated and was stopped at the previous intersection). I ran to the side of the road and took a quick overview of the chair, was it really worth shoving in my small 2-door car? It looked in surprisingly good shape for having fallen out of a vehicle. That was all I needed to see! I opened the passenger door and turned the chair upside down on the seat. The problem now was that traffic was zipping past me at 65 mph. How to get back in the driver's side without feeling like I was going to die? In the spirit of spontaneity, I climbed over the chair on the passenger side, knocking my head on my rear-view mirror. Now, I just had to get the door closed, which it did not want to do. The chair was taking up too much space and with the slight angle of being pulled over on the road, gravity was not on my side. After much effort, the door was closed enough to drive. By this point traffic was stopped again and I had a clear open road to pull out on. I laughed out loud the rest of the way home.
The only issue now is what to do with it. I've started the process of cleaning it in hopes that it will be redeemable as is, despite a few burn marks and grease stains. (It appears that the color used to be a rusty-red. I'm kinda fond of the ugly yellow, sun-bleached color) I think it will go great in the basement. Perhaps, Mr. Putty will enjoy it! If the stains refuse to come out, I figure I can always throw a blanket or something over it, as I have no experience at re-upholstering anything and it looks like it would be a complicated first attempt. I'm sure it would be even content to be the comfy chair in the garage. Whatever the case, it will not end up in the bonfire, like the hubby thinks.
I welcome any other ideas, as well :)
