The Dynamic Duo

Those of your who are familiar with children’s classic literature will recognize this title as being slightly plagarized from Judith Viorst’s “Alexander and the ….....etc.” Hers may be more cleverly written and illustrated, but I think the description fits my day perfectly. Actually, lets go back several days to last Friday…..........

UltraMom is exhilarated. She has had quite a day, thank you very much, but has come through it with flying colors. First of all, she was finally going to get her long-awaited kitchen range delivered. It had been over a month since she had ordered it from the newly opened Home Depot in Elko, and after much travail, and more phone calls, it was finally here! The deliverymen arrived and hauled the old, hated stove out of the house. They removed the new one from the box, loaded it on the dolly, cinched a strap around the stove to secure it and…........shattered the entire glass front of the stove.

“I guess we’ll have to bring your old stove back in, Ma’am. We’re really sorry. I’ve never had this happen before. The whole front of that stove was glass. They shouldn’t make them that way.”
“No, no, don’t bring that thing back in here. Haul it away. I’ll go into Home Depot this afternoon and see what they’re willing to do for me.”

The Home Depot experience actually went pretty well. There was a double-oven kitchen range in the warehouse that had a damaged door handle. It was quite a bit nicer than the stove originally ordered, but they would let me have it for the same price, and would come replace the door at a later date. SOLD! Also, UM exchanged the headrail for her vertical blinds and with Sis-in-law, Pat’s help replaced it and had the satisfaction of seeing it work perfectly. And best of all, the next day, UM was traveling to Twin Falls for the big, annual WeightWatchers meeting, where she would learn lots of new things and get to spend the night with her best friend, Debbie, from Idaho.
Here’s where the fun, (as well as the third person writing style of which I am growing weary) stops.

What with all the excitement and packing, I got to bed pretty late on Friday night, but awakened several hours later with a decidedly queasy stomach. The rest of the night was filled with jolly trips to the bathroom and repeated emptying of the contents of my stomach and intestines. But I wanted to go on my little outing SO badly, I decided that I felt better after one final throwing-up and drove the 3 hours to my meeting. Halfway through the meeting, however, it became abundantly clear that I was not home free. I managed to get to the motel desk, check myself into my room and collapse on the bed. After several hours, I awoke feeling better and arrived back at the meeting just in time to find out that I was the winner of one of the drawings! I won $30 while I was gone! Anyway, I was a barrel of fun the rest of the evening, and collapsed into bed about 7, but Debbie and I did have a nice little talk. The next day was better, and I forced myself to do a little shopping at the mall before driving back home.
Today, I awoke excited. Today I was getting my stove! And I was feeling better! And, just for good measure, and for a more marked contrast with the rest of my day, here are a few more exclamation marks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When no one had shown up to deliver my stove my 12:00 noon, I called. “You are on the schedule for today. Your stove will be delivered.”
Okay, but I was getting tired of waiting around. Finally, about 2:30 Home Depot called. “Are you sitting down? There is a little problem with your stove. It was crushed by the delivery truck axle.” or some such thing. I kind of stopped listening and started crying after the “crushed” part. But I got a grip on myself and called them back about an hour later. They would place a rush order on a stove just like the one I thought I was getting today for no additional cost. I should have it in a week. Kind of pushing it for Thanksgiving when we are expecting a houseful of company, but okay, I’ll make do with the microwave and toaster oven for another week.
Then I get a call about a job I had applied for, oh, a month or so ago at the local minimum security prison. The job entails running the prison store, and is 20 hours a week. A guy from Carson City (Nevada’s great capital) called to tell me. “The job starts Nov 28. But you will need to go to Lovelock ( a couple of hours away) to get your ID badge and get tested for Tuburculosis. And you need to get it done this week.” Well, I wasn’t crazy about that, but decided it was something I could do. Then he calls me back to inform me that I actually have to go to Carson City (300+miles, 4 1/2 hours driving) to fill out the paperwork for the job! No, they can’t reimburse me for any travel time, gas or motel room. He’s sorry, that’s the way it is for everyone. And it would be great if I could get it done by Wednesday. I told him, in slightly different words, “I’m having a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day!”
I’m sure it isn’t helping my mood that I still don’t feel all that great. Udad has gone to work tonight, but suggested I take it easy the rest of the night. Murphy has been slinking about acting worried and sympathetic. I’m sure I’ll feel better tomorrow.
I guess everyone sometimes has days like this…...........even in Australia

UltraMom