Yesterday, the Things had yet ANOTHER Monday off of school. I appreciate Martin Luther King as much as the next person, so I don't mind celebrating him with a day. I disagree with a teacher inservice day falling on the very next Monday. It seems like the school district I work for has some kind of pact with whoever is interested in making me crazy, because the inservice days regularly fall on the next Monday after a holiday of some sort. Not to put too fine a point on it, but Monday and Friday are my days OFF people. I like to lie around and eat bon bons on those days, undisturbed by short immature family members.
So, this Monday, I arranged for Thing 2 to get a visit with his pediatrician, who is delightful. Thing 2 has been making strange facial contortions and trying to pop his ears ever since Christmas, so I thought we should check and see if he had a tumor or something. Thing 2 has a tendency to throw himself a pity party—well, really, a pity jamboree when he really gets going. So I don't take his pronouncements "I have allergies" "I have a cold" "I hate oatmeal" "my legs hurt" terribly seriously. What can I say, I'm heartless. I tell this to the pediatrician, approximately 20 seconds before he says Thing 2 has a pretty healthy allergy problem, by the looks of his sinuses. Oops. Parenting is full of pitfalls. So, Thing 2 is the newest denizen of Clariten Nation.
But that's not the story.
Because we live near the Dr.s office, we don't even get into the beluga until about 7 minutes prior to an appointment. I am so incredibly observant that this time it took until I had backed the van out and driven past the neighbors house to realize the rear passenger tire was totally, utterly, flat.
T minus 6 minutes till appointment.
This is the thing though, it was ok!!
I backed the beluga back into the garage, pumped up the tire with our handy dandy inherited air compressor (2 minutes, thank you Larry). Called the Dr. to say we'd be 10 minutes late on the way (okay, that's illegal now, oops), dropped the van off at the car guy that is across the street from the Dr.s office, and walked to the appointment. Sweet. Thing 1 was totally traumatized that anything so terrible as a flat tire could happen to our beluga, which was cute, and how I would normally approach the situation in my internal drama queen fashion. But not that day. After the appointment, the tire was not done yet, so we walked to the adjacent lucky star fast food joint and watched them fix our tire while we ate lunch. I got to enumerate to the Things how incredibly lucky we were to have a flat tire at just that time.
Apparently, I drove over a nail. Again. It was the most incredibly convenient flat tire I've ever had.
I have to remember this, for times in the future when it is not. For times in the past when it most assuredly wasn't. (Late for interview #35, on the shoulder of the 805 in 1986. In a white dress. Not convenient.)
So, this Monday, I arranged for Thing 2 to get a visit with his pediatrician, who is delightful. Thing 2 has been making strange facial contortions and trying to pop his ears ever since Christmas, so I thought we should check and see if he had a tumor or something. Thing 2 has a tendency to throw himself a pity party—well, really, a pity jamboree when he really gets going. So I don't take his pronouncements "I have allergies" "I have a cold" "I hate oatmeal" "my legs hurt" terribly seriously. What can I say, I'm heartless. I tell this to the pediatrician, approximately 20 seconds before he says Thing 2 has a pretty healthy allergy problem, by the looks of his sinuses. Oops. Parenting is full of pitfalls. So, Thing 2 is the newest denizen of Clariten Nation.
But that's not the story.
Because we live near the Dr.s office, we don't even get into the beluga until about 7 minutes prior to an appointment. I am so incredibly observant that this time it took until I had backed the van out and driven past the neighbors house to realize the rear passenger tire was totally, utterly, flat.
T minus 6 minutes till appointment.
This is the thing though, it was ok!!
I backed the beluga back into the garage, pumped up the tire with our handy dandy inherited air compressor (2 minutes, thank you Larry). Called the Dr. to say we'd be 10 minutes late on the way (okay, that's illegal now, oops), dropped the van off at the car guy that is across the street from the Dr.s office, and walked to the appointment. Sweet. Thing 1 was totally traumatized that anything so terrible as a flat tire could happen to our beluga, which was cute, and how I would normally approach the situation in my internal drama queen fashion. But not that day. After the appointment, the tire was not done yet, so we walked to the adjacent lucky star fast food joint and watched them fix our tire while we ate lunch. I got to enumerate to the Things how incredibly lucky we were to have a flat tire at just that time.
Apparently, I drove over a nail. Again. It was the most incredibly convenient flat tire I've ever had.
I have to remember this, for times in the future when it is not. For times in the past when it most assuredly wasn't. (Late for interview #35, on the shoulder of the 805 in 1986. In a white dress. Not convenient.)
