Empty, Full, Halfway? What next?

Do you sometimes feel that no matter what you do, you can never win? It seems to happen to me all the time. I am in the habit of visiting my elderly mother every Thursday and along with visiting her, do some odd jobs around the garden including watering the pot plants and garden around the back of the house.

Being rural living, water is scarce and conserved where possible. Most of the watering is done by hose with Dam water. However water is also salvaged from the shed roof into an old Bath situated in the yard near where I water from. So as not to waste valuable rain water, I was in the habit of emptying the water every week when up there. Nothing had been said as to whether this was good or bad, for months.

However a couple of weeks back, my sister pasted on a message from my brother forbidding this, as he wanted the water left there for emergency supplies in case of fires, which recently was a genuine concern. So before leaving, I filled the bath up with Dam water, and went home. Since then it has rained reasonably well.

This week I went up there and my brother was home and lamenting that since I filled the bath up with Dam water, it rained and extra precious water was wasted because the bath was full. So the upshot is he now wants the bath kept, just a little over half full, so as to have a bit each way. Some water always there in case of fire, and some extra room for extra rain fall.

My problem is that I prefer solid rules that never change; and not rules that are not only flexible but are dependent on the opinion of someone else who is seldom there when you are, and so the rules can change without you knowing nothing about it but suddenly held solely responsible for an action that is not normally wrong but suddenly is, but by the next time you do it may be right again. Not good for the nerves!

So how does one deal with this? Actually you may be able to help me there, because normally I would walk away from a situation like this. If this happened at my place of employment, I would find another job in a less stressful situation.

However in a family situation that is not possible, and I am just going to have to put up with it as best I can. Sometimes, in Nautical terms, you just have to Trim your sails to the prevailing winds or stay off the water. It is not possible for me just now to stay off the water, so I will just have to keep hanging in there and keep tacking according to the prevailing conditions till I can remove my boat from the water.

I’m not happy about that, but sometimes hanging on in there is the only sensible way to deal with a situation. How about you?