The Dynamic Duo

It is time, once again, for UltraMom’s birthday. At least it will be in a couple of days, but true to form, UltraMom is already celebrating. I mean, why take a birthDAY when you can have a birthWEEK, or even a birthMONTH, right?
It all started with the arrival of the two youngest UltraSons on the evening of July 3. They had each wrangled some time off work in conjunction with the natural holiday of our country’s birthday on July 4th. I had been cleaning and planning favorite meals for days and arrived home from work and Weightwatchers just in time to catch Johnny’s phone call. “We are just a few hours away, but Jim has a stomach virus. Can you go to the store and pick up some gatorade and chicken soup?”
“Sure, the store is open for another 15 minutes. Maybe I should get some juice too and maybe some 7-up and jello…..”
“Didn’t you say the store closes in 15 minutes? Maybe you should get off the phone and go now.”
Yeah, maybe I should. It turned out that Jim was pretty sick. He had even gone to the Dr. earlier that day and had to be given fluids intravenously; he was that dehydrated.
When the boys arrived, Jim made it as far as UltraDad’s big recliner, and except for bathroom breaks (frequent) and an occasional sojourn to the couch, that was pretty much his home for the next 2 days. I kept him supplied with fluids and tried to get him to eat some chicken noodle soup and jello, but the first solid food he wanted was a chorrizo, a very spicy hot dog.
Johnny, in the meantime, got to work on my birthday present: a pond and waterfall in the corner of my backyard. He had already purchased some of the components, such as a preformed waterfall, pump, filter, and my favorites: a solar powered light up water lily and a stone turtle that could spit out water if you attached a hose to his backside. Johnny kept threatening to do it the other way around. On the 4th of July, while UltraDad and Jimbo were slumbering, we went over to the Pawelek house a few blocks down the street to view the waterfall/stream/pond that had been designed and installed by Nate, the 16 yr old son. It was fantastic. A high waterfall tumbled down carefully placed rocks, while part of the flow meandered along a spillway down the side. The stream was lined with stones, and the large pond contained a few fish, captured from a local river. Interesting plants were in and around the water. As I “oohed” and “ahed”, Johnny kept glancing at me nervously. “Mom,” he finally said, “you do realize that your pond will be nothing like this one, don’t you?” Yes, Honey, I know and my pond will be just fine.
I made pizza on Friday, happy that Jim seemed back to his old self. Each pizza contained different toppings per preference of my two sons of honor. Jim’s pizza came out first. Johnny cut large slices for everyone, and I began to be concerned that Jim might not get enough. After all, he had been sick. He needed to gain his strength back. In hindsight, I probably didn’t need to go as far as having Johnny take back the piece he had just served his Dad. In the end, Johnny’s pizza was nearly gone, requiring him to remove mushrooms and forego green olives if he wanted leftovers. “Jim, tell Jessica that my pizza was better than hers,” I said teasingly. “I can’t say that.” he replied. “We are not yet in the lying phase of our relationship.” Seems that Jessica is still the reigning pizza queen.
There were lots of trips to Home Depot for supplies. The first trip, Johnny and I had looked at some preformed pools, but obtaining the price for them turned out to be nigh impossible. In the end we bought pond liner to freeform our own pond. I will spare you all the details of pond planning and implementing, but lets just say that Johnny did a lot of digging, and he and I both did a lot of agonizing and second guessing before the two practical & mechanically minded members of the family were in near possession of their full faculties and could help.
Another trip to Home Depot, this time with everyone, including Pat, who was planning to install a pond of her own. After another look at the preformed ponds, UltraMom was determined to find out what they cost. A friendly young man with a peculiar gait, wearing an orange Home Depot apron, did his best to help. As we talked, his story came out: “Several years ago, I went off the bottom end of Lamoille Canyon on my motorcycle going 80 mph. I had a broken arm, a ruptured spleen and severe brain damage. I was the first one in the county to be Lifelited to the hospital, and from there I was taken to SLC. My heart stopped 9 times during the operations and I had to learn to eat, walk, talk, etc all over again.” I admired his courage and determination. After being routed through several clerks, we finally found a manager who could do the necessary computer lookup. “Thanks for sticking with it and helping me with this,” I told the young man. “Ma’am if I was the kind to give up, I wouldn’t be alive today. Why, I was riding my motorcycle in Lamoille Canyon, and I went off the edge going 80 mph. I had to be lifelited….” The story came out a couple of more times, esp when a new person showed up to check on my progress. I can only guess that was part of his brain damage. We were in Johnny’s car, so the purchase of the pond would have to wait for another time, probably going through the arduous price look-up process all over again.

In honor of my upcoming birthday, I got to select the eatin’ joint, and I opted for Dos Amigos, my favorite Elko Mexican restaurant. Since UltraDad doesn’t particulary enjoy this cuisine, we don’t usually eat there, but my birthday seems to bring out the self indulgent in me, and he was able to get a chicken sandwich and fries while the rest of us enjoyed fajitas, tacos, enchiladas and chimichangas.
After lunch, UltraDad expressed a desire to check out Office Max. The rest of us were slower and when I went over to collect him, I found him in earnest examination of digital cameras. “Ah,” he said in an exaggerated tone of annoyance that ended up sounding a bit relieved, “I want to get you a new digital camera for you birthday, but I guess it isn’t a surprise anymore. Well, since you’re here, what do you think of this one?” What a sweetie. I ended up liking “this one”, a Kodak C386, I think, and it was a good price. I have the option to take it back, but so far I’m leaning towards keeping.
We headed back to Carlin, but as we neared the tunnels, we could see there was a problem. Traffic was backed up; in fact it was not moving. On the hillsides to the right the hills were smoking and blazing with rings of fire. Well, we knew this was going to be a bad year for fires. Fortunately, after waiting a mere half hour or so, traffic started moving again and we were able to get home.
We played a little more pinochle, something it seemed we were doing whenever there was a little lull in other activities. It was fun, but serious card players would probably be rolling over in their graves, or, if still alive, cringing, to watch us play. I mean, our team, which consisted of me and the jinx, who kept me from hardly ever winning, played pretty much on the up and up, but the other team, cheated blatantly. The jinx and the cheaters varied from game to game. The only near-constant was my near-lack of cheating and near-lack of winning.
Then Pat had a great idea, first proposed by me hours ago, but subsequently discarded as insane. “Let’s go to Home Depot in my pickup and get your preform pool.” Somehow, it seemed saner now that I was less exhausted, so off we went, just her and me, back into Elko. I called the Sheriff’s Office to make sure the road was open, going both ways. It was to be a fast trip. I had a list and we had a purpose. “Do you mind if we make a quick stop at Builder’s Mart?” I asked my companion. “There is a pond book there I want to buy.” As I was perusing the said pond book, Pat was checking out the store. What she found was a display of pond stuff at clearance 1/2 off. There were pumps, so I called home with specs, as we had determined that the pump currently in possession would not be adequate for our baby-monster waterfall output. That done, I moved on to filters. The pump and filters were different brands, and try as I might, I could not ascertain if any of the filters would be compatible with my pump in hand. But I found a pkg of something called pond-liner; a felt type material to put under pond lining material. I got a heck of a deal on that: FREE! Neither the cashier or her manager could find it in the store database, so they just gave it to me. By that time, I had decided not to buy the pond book. I liked the one they had in Home Depot better.
So, off to Home Depot to get an the pond, extension cord, and 1 inch corrugated hose and clamps. Pat had decided, by this time, to get one too. While asking for help to make sure I got the correct hose size, I ran into the same young employee from earlier in the day. The garden section of the store was muggy and humid. “You are still working?” I greeted him. “I’ll bet you will be glad when your shift is over. You must be dying in this heat.” “No, if I were going to die, it would have been a couple of years ago when I had this accident. You see, I was riding my motorcycle in Lamoille Canyon, and ….”
While Pat gassed up her pickup, I went over to Papa Murphy’s to pick up a couple of take and bake pizzas for dinner. They had one called a “Perfect Pizza”, half Hawaiian and half Pepperoni. I ordered one, and then, deciding I needed two pizzas, ordered another. It occurred to me, as I watched the pizzas being assembled that I could, perhaps have just ordered one of each.
Back on the road again, but wait…. what is going on here? Semi trucks are parked off the road and traffic is backed up. People are walking around. It seems that the fire has perked up and we are not going to be able to get back home, at least not for a few hours. Resignedly we turn around and head back into Elko. Maybe a little shopping at JC Penney’s will lift our spirits. As I am selecting shoes and a few shirts off the sale rack, my cell phone rings. “We are coming into Elko to have dinner with you,” UltraDad announces. I tried to talk him out of this insanity, but I’ve got to admit it made me feel good that they wanted to spend this time with us. Secretly, I think they just didn’t want to eat leftovers. By the time our meal was over, the road was open again and we drove home through a surreal scene of blazing hillsides with men walking about in the midst of the fire. Once home, we soon fell exhausted into our beds.
The next day, Sunday, my erstwhile pond builders had to leave. Pond building would have to fall to the UltraParents or wait til the boys could come out again. Later on that day, UltraDad got busy, and with help from UltraMom and Pat, got the pond lined, instalaled and lined about the rim with attractive pavings stones excavated from the lawn. The waterfall? To be continued.

UltraMom

UltraDad working on the pond