A Day of Bumps

It’s 2:00a.m. and I’m tired but I’m still here. Today had many highs and many lows, with the lows outweighing the highs drastically; but we all still came up smiling. While I was driving Dolly to school there was some nitwit in front of me who, apparently, couldn’t find the gas pedal on a consistent basis. Slow down, speed up; slow down, speed up…on and on until s/he turned out of my path. Thanks goodness.

Then I got a text from Kara saying that the glass in the storm door, which was already cracked, had cracked again and would have to be replaced today. It’s two panes of glass in a single frame and only the top pane broke. We, very carefully, removed the entire panel from the door and slid it into a huge plastic bag in case the two-foot triangle of broken glass decided to fall out completely. It stayed put and we got it to the glass shop where we left it for an estimate. Kara needed to know if it would be cheaper to just buy a new door; money’s very tight so we do what we can to keep expenses down to a minimum. (We found out later it’s $45 to replace the broken glass with a pane of plexi-glass.)

We ran a few more errands and I found some stuff at the dollar store to help me get my bathroom organized. I love things that help me organize my stuff and I can’t wait to get the stuff home to use it. It always gives me a great sense of accomplishment when everything is in its place. Unfortunately I couldn’t rush home to start organizing because we had more errands to run. By the time we got back to the house Kara and I were both starving since we hadn’t eaten before we left the house. She quickly made me a ham sandwich which I wolfed down as I ran out the door to pick up Dolly from school.

About five minutes from the school it started snowing. What the fuck??!! There wasn’t any snow predicted for today. It was just flurries as I pulled into the school parking lot but when Dolly and I emerged it was snowing a little harder. It wasn’t sticking to anything, mind you, just constant and steady. As we got into the van I got a phone call from Kara asking me not to stop anywhere on the way home because either the hot water heater or the oil burner had ruptured and the basement had a lake in it. The utility room is in the corner of the basement so the boys’ room and mine and Dolly’s room butt up against it. I could only imagine what kinds of things might have been ruined; and Kara was figuring this was going to cost a couple of thousand dollars to repair or replace the unit.

I had to stop for gas or I wasn’t making it home so Dolly and I pulled off the back roads and back out onto the main road. Because of the slow-but-steady snow that was falling, everybody decided to drive about 25 miles an hour. Are you shittin’ me?! I was about out of gas, the gas station was only a mile ahead, but we were barely moving. I finally made it, got $10 worth of gas and then came home. I got as many towels as I could find to sop up the water that had reached halfway across the boys’ room, wetting half of the area rug; and that had seeped under the wall of the utility room to my mattress, which is on the floor because the box spring won’t fit down the stairs.

We were supposed to be leaving around 4:30 to take my kids to their dad’s place for the weekend, and Kara’s boys to her mom’s house for an overnight so they could spend time with their dad tomorrow (today). We were not leaving that early. The repair dude showed up and said it was definitely the oil burner (even though he explained it, we still don’t understand why there is water in it) but that it was covered under the warranty. YEA!!! One worry gone. He fixed the oil burner, showed us how to bleed the radiators, we bundled the kids, and were out the door to head into Nassau County for kid drop-offs.

We’ve both got colds so neither of us was, or is, feeling very well and we’d only gotten to eat those sandwiches. We ended up stopping at BK for dinner because her kids were hungry (mine were going to eat with their dad) but it didn’t sit well with either of us. We got her kids delivered and headed back home but had to stop at Steve’s on the way to pick up that pantry. It had to be tonight because he’s working tomorrow (today) and I really need it. We finally got there around 9:00 and got the pantry, some pots and pans he no longer wanted, a small hanging curio cabinet and a small DVD player. By the time we got home we were exhausted but still had to go through Christmas presents to see what we’ve already gotten our respective kids. We did a few other things and now here I am.

We’ve got a really busy weekend ahead of us, with lots to do, but we’ll get it done. If we could make it through today with the broken door, the busted oil burner, the flooded basement, the lack of food, the snow, our colds, and over four hours in the car, we can make it through the rest of the stuff we have to do this weekend; no doubt. Like I said, we’re still smiling because we’re grateful for all we have regardless of the setbacks. We just keep plugging along and doing what needs to be done. I hope you can too.

Until next time…peace to all.