Things are better now - but they got worse before they got better!
Thursday night, of course, was upsetting. And then Paul and I ended up getting in a big disagreement, which is pretty rare anymore - also upsetting. Things are fine now - he finally apologized! :)
And so, sleep deprived and puffy-eyed I made my way to Ben's school on Friday. This particular day I had decided to go the main route rather than the back way I normally take. I wouldn't be just dropping Ben off like I normally do. I needed to pick something up inside the school and so I needed to park;thus my decision to go the main route. All of a sudden the temperature gauge on my van shot to "hot." I knew it was a matter of minutes before the van would die. But I was stuck in a line of vehicles, all dropping children off for school. There wasn't a thing I could do about it. The stress was unbelievable!
And it did die. Ben immediately hopped out and darted across the busy street to the Middle School wing. I informed the driver behind me what had happened and went in the building too. Ben's teacher walked out with me and took a look at the van. He said there was oil mixed in the water reservoir, which is not good. I continued to try to call Paul, but he wasn't answering. I even had the dispatcher at his job try to page him in his van - to no avail. I sat in Ben's classroom for an hour, but got nowhere. All I wanted to do was dissolve in a puddle of tears - I was so upset about everything!
In the meantime, Mr. K asked me how the program had gone the night before. I gave him an earful. He had heard it already from some other source. He basically told me that since this was an extracurricular activity, the school was not obligated to provide extra support/supervision for Ben. But he suggested that perhaps a "buddy" system could be set up for Ben during performances. I agreed to give it a try. I don't want to take Ben out of chorale because he just loves it. But yet, I don't want there to ever be a repeat of Thurs. night's performance, either. So I guess we'll see what happens.
Eventually, I had Will come pick me up in the truck. I got home and Paul finally called. I had a full day of running around planned - of course all that was shot. I had the van towed home. Afterwards, Will drove me to town in the truck so I could get the bare minimum done of what needed to be done that day. The truck is not a sleek, well-running machine. It's a rusty, shaky beater. Will said it drives "funny" and he thought I'd be better off with a chauffeur, which was fine with me.
Paul and Will ended up spending all day Sat. working on our old red van. It hasn't run in months, but it is now. The plan is that Paul will get the house closed in, which is a real concern with the cold now. It won't be long and snow will be flying. Once that is accomplished, then he'll dig into my van. Paul's concern is that the oil in the water indicates a deep engine problem and he doesn't have time right now to get the outside of the house done and an engine job. Plus, work has really speeded up and he's working a lot of hours.
So, in the meantime, I'll be getting around in the rickety red van with the cracked windshield. It's better than walking, I guess. The starter needs to be replaced on it, which will happen tomorrow. I'm supposed to pick one up from some place in Sandyville. Yesterday morning, Paul, Will, and David headed out to Montezuma to pick up some free insulation from a guy off Craig's List. I had planned to take the other boys and go to church. But when I saw the problems that the starter was having I decided to forget it. I could just see me not being able to get it to turn over and having Paul be so far away.
The up side was that I ended up developing a very, very strange desire to deep clean my house yesterday morning. I'm not aware that that has ever happened before. I got the living room and half the kitchen done before I ran out of time. So, I guess every cloud does have a silver lining!
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