HELLO MURPHY
You know the old saying, “When man plans, the gods laugh,” that’s pretty much how this week has gone for me. We are week three into this TDY, and Murphy hit me with a double punch. For those who haven’t met Murphy yet, let me explain.
Murphy’s law states that anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Murphy tends to visit when our spouses go TDY or deploy. Sometimes, he is just a nuisance, and other times, he is downright awful. Either way, we can expect something to go off the rail when our spouses leave.
The first thing Murphy did was send an army of caterpillars to my house. I know that of all the things to have crawling in my house, caterpillars are definitely not the worst things on the list. That being said, I have had it up to here (imagine my hand held above my head) with these things. They ate through all the food in our garden. They are swarming the sides of my house. And more than a few brave souls have made their way inside.
We noticed them inside on Friday and sprayed some nontoxic mixtures around the house. I didn’t see any more inside over the weekend and decided the garden could be a lost cause until my husband got home. But when I came downstairs yesterday morning, six were crawling around the dining room, so that’s when I started calling exterminators.
I literally called 14 different companies trying to get service out as quickly as possible. You would be shocked by the number of people who said, “We don’t do caterpillars.” They had formulas for centipedes and millipedes but not caterpillars. I know I’m not an entomologist, but I really feel like the solution that works on one crawling bug should work on another.
This is not a sponsored post, but I do need to shout out to Orkin because they could come out and spray on the same day. The next earliest appointment I could get with another company was two days later. If you are going the Orkin route, make sure to set up service with the local branch rather than corporate because they can offer significantly better rates (at least here in Georgia).
The second thing Murphy threw at me, which is definitely the worst of the two, is that he took away my nanny. She started college this week, and her workload was much higher than either of us had expected. This left me scrambling for a sitter to cover my appointments this week and in a world of trouble figuring out the next couple of weeks.
We’ve handled the situation, though. I have a friend watching my son this morning, so I could make my appointment. My husband found a babysitter (while he is TDY) that can cover Thursday and Friday. I posted new jobs on Sittercity, Care, and messaged a bunch of nannies to get interviews scheduled. I am meeting with seven potential nannies this week, and hopefully, I like one of them enough that they can start next week.
Now, Murphy may very well be a military spouse superstition. It could be argued that we only notice how bad these things are because our spouses aren’t around to help deal with them. It could also be that many of the things that happen are just the nature of life. I’ve heard from so many people who also have caterpillars everywhere and whose spouses are at home. It’s probably more of a Georgia in August thing than Murphy. But I would also add that the only time I saw scorpions in our house or found a dead mouse in the garage during our four years in Oklahoma was during my husband’s deployment.
And we knew that our nanny was going back to school full-time come August. This wasn’t news when her classes started; she has already had to cut her hours with us to accommodate her school schedule. We already knew that we would need to find someone to help supplement her hours by September when my workload would pick up. This just expedited our search, and frankly, this week would still be a scramble even if my husband was home because it is very hard to take an almost two-year-old into the squadron and actually be productive.
We don’t have to welcome Murphy into our homes. We don’t even have to handle the situations with grace. A lot of anger was directed at caterpillars in my house this week, and many tears were shed over my nanny. I felt frustrated that I was the one to handle everything, but that wasn’t true. We have to ask for help when we need it. We have to be willing to reach out to a friend for babysitting. We have to be willing to open up to our spouses so they can help however they can. Everyone has a different threshold for what they will share while their spouse is gone, and I fully respect those who keep the problems close to their chest so they don’t worry or distract their spouses. I’m just not capable of keeping a secret, and if I hadn’t told my husband, I wouldn’t have a babysitter to cover the rest of the week because he’s the one who found that.
When it rains, it does seem to pour, especially here in Georgia. I don’t see a scenario where we can be prepared for every possible thing that can or will go wrong during a separation. We just have to take the punches as they come and do our best to protect that spot during the next separation. We now have consistent pest control, which will hopefully address those problems moving forward. I have a growing list of potential babysitters and nannies I can call on should I need extra coverage. That doesn’t mean I’ll be prepared for the next TDY or deployment, but at least one base is covered.