buckets full of ice and Big Red

I was returning from “doing lunch” at the closest and easiest place to grab a quick meal, and I stopped by the convenience store to load up on an afternoon drink, one of those buckets full of ice and Big Red. To think, I was promised rain today, and although there were a few skimpy clouds, it was mostly sun so I needed the drink. I got home, and I was just about to set the big drink (bucket of sugar, caffeine and ice) down when the plastic lid came off, and the whole mess landed on the edge of the coffee table, and suddenly, there was Big Red soaking into the carpet. I know shag carpet isn’t in style anymore, but I figure if I just hold out long enough, and if I vacuum often enough, I could get this place in Better Homes and Garden, a premanufactured/mobile home edition. Something about the decor, with black velvet, Texas flags, and so forth adorning the walls. So I was about to set about cleaning up the mess of ice [and sugar and artificial color], when I saw the cat peering at me, then at the mess, and then back at me. I could hear her suggest in a single, plaintive meow, “Sure is a lot bigger mess than my last hairball.”