So I was just sitting here thinking about how things happen in weird cycles... How the MDA assessor showed up today and had something positive today... and on the very same day State Farm reaches a settlement with thousands of coast policyholders. It's not material for The Twilight Zone or anything - but there's really something to it, I tell you... And that's what I was thinking while chatting with Mom when the phone rang.
It was Dave. The truck broke down. We had to go pick him up at the Burger King.
It's cold out. Not freezing by any standards - but uncomfortable by my southern fried standards. None of the four kids had shoes on... and I was brilliantly dressed in pedal-pusher jeans and no socks... We were all yelling at each other through chattering teeth by the time I got the car started.
The heat had finally gotten warm by the time we made it to the Burger King parking lot. "Where is he?" I asked outloud quite by accident. "There's Dad!" answered George, pointing. Yes... I saw him too.. but .. where was the truck?
The truck... was in the drive-thru... Just west of the first window.
Dave didn't mention this in the phone call. He also didn't mention that I was coming to jumpstart the truck -- not just pick him up.
In order to jumpstart the truck.. it was necessary to maneuver the 3/4 ton Suburban the wrong way down the drive-thru lane. Undaunted drive-thru customers wouldn't even spare an inch ... and I had to drive half on the curb and half in the drive-thru lane to meet Dave's dead truck.
By the time he found the jumper cables and got both hoods open - Emily was going full-tilt with her it'spastmybedtime screaming. Yvonne started complaining that her seatbelt hurt and the boys whined that their food would be cold. Yes, yes.. I know. Not surprisingly, the truck didn't start on the first try. It didn't start on the first 7 tries as a matter of fact... But eventually it did.
Then we had to figure out how to get out of the drive-thru lane unharmed.
There was a break in customers which gave me the chance to back the Suburban far enough down the lane for Dave to squeeze around me. Then I decided to make a run for it and try to get all the way out past the windows and around the ordering signs without having a head-on with a minivan full of hungry people. I escaped without incident only to almost have a head-on with somebody in the middle of the parking lot.
Phew.
I followed Dave home sort of giggling.. sort of dazed... kind of irritated that we now had the dying truck to deal with (though it was definitely something we were expecting anytime).
During that return trip... Not just one - but TWO black cats ran across the street, crossing my path. I'm not all that superstitious but that did make me stop giggling.
We made it home and managed to unload all the cold kids and cold food without anyone getting hurt. I walked through the back door and was greeted by the blue screen of death glaring at me from my laptop on the kitchen table. Pfffffft!!! (The last time this happened we had to replace the harddrive.)
Aye! There be gremlins about! I'm gonna go drink me tea from a mason jar and leave 'em about their work til tomorrow.
3 comments:
Black cats aside, congrats on the bathroom being underway! However, I do think the mason jars are a very good idea.
Oops almost forgot, I'm still reading up on the grant money situation...how is this going to affect you?
Tea just tastes better out of a mason jar. It does.
As for the insurance/grant money situation -- it doesn't affect us at all.. State Farm was not our insurance carrier so we aren't part of the settlement.
And as for "Lawrence" the inspector... If MDA accepts his assessment then we're due more money from the grant program.
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