Baby Steps...........

I do not know from whence it came, how's that for poetic writing, but my new dishwasher is taking baby steps to arrive underneath my o so impatient cabinet. It started out somewhere in Maytag Factory Land.....then made it's way to Lowe's in Abilene, Tx....and on down the highway to my house. It then sat like a lump in my entry for about 10 days. It was bored, I was impatient, my dishes remained dirty. Finally....TODAY IS THE BIG REVEAL....we are gonna take it out of it's cardboard house and install it. I waved a fond, but not sad farewell to my old dishwasher...Been Nice Knowin' Ya.....and happily sat and watched the goin's on of NDI(new dishwasher installation). I'm smiling, my dishes are ecstatic, the knives and forks are merrily dancing in the drawer. Lots of tools scattered along my bar and kitchen floor....even the puddle of water that leaked from my old DW and the water line did not disturb me. Nope it is a happy day on the Brannan Farm. Much grunting and growling and discussion commenced .....instructions read, arguments had. Nuts and bolts and all sorts of things flew around...then SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!! All action stopped. Conversation became stilted. Busy hands stilled. Frowns appeared. The new DW let out a sigh of frustration....or was that me? Part Alert, Part Alert.....We have a missing part. I feel like the kid at Christmas whose dad can't quite get the toys put together..... I AM THAT KID. So for now, because I live in a small West Texas town that doesn't have a hardware store open on Sunday, I must wait to play until tomorrow. My old DW gone, my new DW sitting like a blob in my kitchen and my cabinet looking like a 6 year old with a missing front tooth. The dishes are depressed, the forks and knives refuse to come out of their drawer. The baby steps have ceased. The only sound is the tap tap tap of water still dripping into a coffee can from the line underneath my sink. There is no Joy in Mudville....nor on the Brannan Farm.