Longish Couple of Days

Good morning! Only a two-day wait this time. That’s good; not so  much to remember.

Wednesday was an interesting day. Hmmmmm. I’m thinking maybe we have quite a few interesting days. What do you think?

A few ties, anyone? There are over 200 there and these are not the only ones.

Anyway, Wednesday was an interesting day. Joanna got to school in the morning; Zak gave her a ride on his way to work and/or school. I knew I needed to pick her up but didn’t remember what time but thought it wasn’t a big deal because I could always call or text. Amena didn’t miss the bus. The boys got off to school. I looked for my phone. I couldn’t find it. It wasn’t by the bed or on the table or on the counter in the kitchen and those are about the only places I leave it. It wasn’t in Amena’s bed or on the small table by the brown chair which are places Amena leaves it. It wasn’t in Cedric’s bed and I remembered seeing him with it that morning (he’d gotten up really early and absconded with my phone to bed). I couldn’t call it to find it because for one thing, the house phone is still out of commission and for another thing, Amena had used it the night before and had the ringer volume turned off. So, I couldn’t call or text Joanna to find out what time she was out of class. So I emailed her. 12:15. Okay, no problem.

As noon approached, I got ready to go and at noon I went to get the key from the window where we keep the keys. It wasn’t there. I looked in the ignition of the green car. It wasn’t there. I looked upstairs to see if Paul had left it in a pocket but there were no pockets. I checked to see what jacket he had worn to work and it was the same one he’d had on the day before so there was no pocket and therefore no key. I emailed Joanna really quick and then went to the office and dialed Paul at work (it’s super easy—just pick up the phone and hit the button by his name—instant connection as long as he’s not on the phone and he wasn’t). I asked him where he might have left the keys. “Oh, that’s not good,” he said when I told him where I’d looked. “I hope I don’t. . . they’re in my pocket.” In Shrewsbury.  So here I am stuck with a car and no keys and a truck with a plow and no keys.

Paul called Adam and he picked Joanna up from school. He also came and picked her up and took her to work. Because I had no keys, I had no way to get anyone to church and even if I had, I wouldn’t have been able to bring them home because I needed to leave to go to Manchester to pick up my mother.

Paul called on his way home and after a conversation about finding someone to go with me or him driving up he called the Fuller’s to see if I could use their van. It’s been so cold that the diesel’s have a hard time because the fuel likes to gel sometimes in spite of the fact that it’s supposed to have an additive to prevent gelling. The green car I guess had been having trouble idling so Paul didn’t want me to drive it either. It appears that the problem with it was water in the fuel which I guess is a common problem when it gets cold. Anyway, the Fuller’s van was an option so Paul picked me up, we went to the Fuller’s, I left to go get my mother.

My trip was pretty uneventful. I found some good radio stations to listen to and heard lots of Journey, Def Leppard, Cheap Trick and a bit of U2 and a few others. The biggest problem there is that I couldn’t sing along because of this stupid cold that the darn dust in the bedroom gave me. Still, my ears do work even if loud volumes were making them crackle.

When I got to the parking lot that I usually park in to wait, I parked and checked my phone. My mother had sent me a message saying that they were finally boarding and that the flight would be in the neighborhood of an hour late. I checked before I left online and the airline said that it had already left and only seven minutes late. What was this hour baloney? I guess it was all about deicing. Anyway, she was scheduled to arrive at 9:38 pm and actually arrived at 11:00 pm. So guess what I did? I sat. And waited. And listened to the radio. I didn’t take anything with me to read; no knitting; nothing. Oh, yeah. Pretty exciting it was.

Finally, I saw a plane in the air (or a jet, depending upon how particular you want to be) and thought it must be the one my mother was on. I don’t know for sure that it was, but I think it must have been because there weren’t any others and it was the right time for her to have landed at 11:00. Still I waited. It takes time to disembark and collect luggage. Eventually I went to the airport and only made the loop once around (they don’t want you to park and wait) when she appeared in the cold. And it was cold. 5 lovely degrees.

The trip home wasn’t bad. She got to tell me about her flights and we got to stop and get gas. Pretty exciting. We got home sometime after 1:00. I helped her get her stuff inside and then we went to bed. Paul, amazingly, was not only in bed but asleep as well.

And that was that. I still haven’t fed the goats yet and they are beginning to complain so I will go do that and then be back to finish up about yesterday.

The goats have their grain and water and one armful of hay. They’ll have to wait for the other armful of hay for later.

Yesterday morning Amena got off, Joanna needed a ride to work. I called the hospital and there was a woman coming in to be induced so I did need to go in but I wasn’t going to rush and get there by 7:00. I met the bus on my way home from dropping Joanna off. I went in the house, got changed, asked Paul how to get to the Fuller’s (which was an interesting conversation) and left.

When I asked Paul about getting to Fuller’s, he had to give me all the directions. Go right out of the driveway, go right at the fork, left at the stop sign. When you can’t go any further, turn right, as you’re going up the hill, turn left, their driveway is to the right. Yeah. I knew all of that, I just wasn’t sure which left to take off of 2A which is what you end up on when you turn right after you can’t go any further (which is the second stop sign along that way) but what I said was, “I know. But. . .” To which I got the beginnings of a repeat which I didn’t need. So I said I needed to know which left and the answer was the second one. That’s all I needed.

I only had to wait a few minutes at Fuller’s and they dropped me off at the hospital. It was 8:30 when I got in and finished washing my hands ready to go. There was indeed someone in labor so at least I knew I wouldn’t be terribly bored. And I wasn’t. I did wonder if I was going to end up with a terrible headache like I did last time. I didn’t. I decided it is partially related to the vibes in the room because the family yesterday was awesome. Only minor cell phone use. Lots of joking with a liberal helping of sarcasm. A laboring woman who was just sailing through the beginning contractions that I’ve seen debilitate other women.

The boys had a pack meeting for scouts last night and I fully intended to go. However, I had to wait for Paul to pick me up from the hospital and therefore didn’t get home until 4:00. Joanna needed a ride to school. I needed to make supper and the kitchen was a mess. There was no way I was going to get everything done that needed to be including the feeding of the minions so I decided that I wasn’t going to even try. Amazingly, I felt so much better after making that decision. I was more relaxed, calm, and able to deal with slow children.

And I am learning when I can and cannot sign up for shifts at the hospital. And I am learning about doula work things that I suspected but am now coming to know.

And that is all for now. Have a terrifical day!