Today has not been very fortunate, and I think I'm going to lay blame on rare astronomical events.
I will begin with arriving at the church at 6:45 in time to see a friend nearly have a heart attack. With sweat beading and dripping off
every pore and hair of her head, she was attempting to load the fourth
year girls' camp stuff on top of her car, as they sat on the curb and watched. I don't think she was happy that I was there fifteen minutes late to deposit Jesse. In all actuality, I
was not fifteen minutes late. I
knew that she didn't plan on leaving until 7:00, and even just fifteen minutes of extra sleep is critical! It went against every common sense law in my body
to sit around for a half hour while we waited for the appropriate time
to leave. Especially when I'm sick. So, I drove up, puzzled over her
attempts for a minute, and then said, "Is there a reason you're trying
to fit it
all? Don't you remember the agreement that if you took the
fourth year girls early, I would take their stuff? You only need to
take their sleeping bags, and their overnight bags." Three minutes later
we sat down on the curb to wait out the remaining ten minutes until
seven. Camp will be fun.
I figured since I
was in town, I may as well stop off to get the camp/scout
trailer, instead of going in again tonight. I knocked on the families door where it's kept (It
was 8:30 by this time) and woke every last one of them up. I felt bad,
but I needed somebody to help. Junior and I got it hooked up - or so we thought. Five
miles down the road the trailer came unhitched. I wildly careened a
mile and a half downhill. I think, for a bit, I bore somewhat of a
resemblance to Mr. Toad- although I like to imagine I was a bit more Sandra Bullock-ish in 'Speed'. I finally came to a rest at the bottom, without too much damage- but with enough damage
that it's no longer possible to take it to camp tomorrow - with all of
our stuff. (We'll worry about this detail after my nap. ;) )
So, there I sat - sick with fever and chills (backroad of hwy 70),
afraid to leave the trailer for fear of it getting stolen, unable to
drive the car back under the hitch, or lift and carry the trailer far
enough to the hitch, and unable
to find a block, or piece of wood, or trash enough to give it a boost.
Where is all that darn Oklahoma litter when you need it?? I called Dad. He
didn't answer. A.) He didn't hear it -as usual. B.) He was in surgery.
I called Bishop. He's out of town. I called Bro. Watsen. He was kind of far away and I didn't want him to have to make the trip. I THOUGHT about calling the missionaries, but knew that they didn't have very many miles
available. And, since I was pretty sure Junior had gone back to bed, I was not going to wake him twice (besides, you saw how well we did the first time.) So tell me,
what USE is a mobile phone when you can't get anybody in your time of
need?? That left it to me to figure out. I went back and sat in
the car (where there was much needed air conditioning) to think about
it. FYI - It helps to shed a few tears, and pound your head on the steering wheel when you're thinking. And that's
when I saw my stack of books (and you kids have always thought me
crazy for packing so many...) I stacked one book at
a time, then heaved with all my might until I got the trailer on top.
Then stacked another one. And another, and another. The final book
that did the trick was the one I'd been
saving, holding out on, and hoping not to use. David McCullough's
'Americans in Paris'. I know, I know - sacrilege. I was ever so
careful with it though, and think it came out more unscathed than my
poor innards and back.. SOMETHING, down there, did not fare so well. I
fear I may have to take a quick trip to the doctor for prolapse. Isn't
it nice to use a word like 'prolapse' and have you understand exactly
what I'm talking about without having to go into morbid detail?
I drove at a snail's pace the rest of the way home, hoping that I was
more successful at attaching it than the previous time. In fact, I drove
so slow that I think I almost could have jogged faster -minus the
prolapse of course. I was very unwilling to have another run away
trailer, or abuse my books in such a demeaning way again.
I made it home just in time to find out that the water company had shut
off my water. They did not receive the payment that I had mailed
over three weeks ago. In all fairness, three other places have not
received theirs either - and I put them in the dropbox myself! I asked
the water company to PLEAAAAASSSEEE turn my water back on, as it's the
only shower I will get for a week, it had been a very rough (and sweaty)
morning, I'd never before been late on a payment, and I didn't have time to drive one in. She said, "Do
you have a debit card?" Well! How rude not to have told me that that
would work before I begged,
don't you think?
And that, my dear boys, is what happens
when Venus passes in front of the Sun. Fortunately for us it will not
happen again before 2117; and we will all be blessedly gone.
I love you,
Mom
