The Travel-Go-Round

Here's a sampling of the hats I've worn this week:

1) Travel agent headset: DH called Sunday night from Costa Rica to beg for help getting home early from his trip with DS. He came down with an ear infection after snorkeling that was so bad his ear canal was completely blocked. And all the resort paramedic (who spoke no English, so it's a good thing DH speaks Espanol!) could do was look at the ear, and say, "Wow!" Gee, that's helpful. I think it's time to come home!

2) Taxi driver's ball cap: After successfully switching DH and DS's flights to one leaving a day early, I had a dilemma: I was already supposed to be picking up his mom, dad, and sister upon THEIR return from a trip, and the pick-up point was in the opposite direction from the airport but at the same time as DH's new flight arrival. Whew. So I enlist my mom to pick them up.

But wait! Dear Sis-in-Law calls and says they missed their flight, and they'll now be arriving at the airport around 7 pm. Why, that's perfect! I'll just get everyone at the same time! I call my mom back and ask her instead to watch my youngers so there'll be room in the car for everyone. No problem. Except... DSIL calls again later, and says they missed THAT flight, and now everyone is arriving back late in the evening and can I come get them around midnight from the original pickup point? Sigh. Of course.

And that's what I do - drop the youngers with mom, go down to the airport, pick up DH and DS, call Pizza Hut on the way home and order dinner, take the suffering DH and DS (who is also coming down with an earache now) home, go back and pick up youngers from Mom's, come home, eat a piece of pizza in random bites as I pass back and forth through the kitchen between the car (unloading) and the bedrooms (putting sick family members to bed). I lie down with DH for a moment to hear about the trip, but he's feeling so bad that he can't really think about much else. Just about the time I think, wow, this pillow sure is comfortable, the phone rings - DSIL and DMIL and DFIL have touched down and the bus is on its way to the pickup point! So, back out to the car.

I arrive at the pickup point about 11:30, maybe 5 minutes before the bus arrives. We load up and I drop DMIL and DFIL off at their house, then swing back by DSIL's house last. But what's that weird noise coming from inside her front door? Yes, folks, it's the BURGLAR ALARM GOING OFF. At midnight. In a single woman's home.

Fortunately, there were no intruders to confront. Unfortunately, the alarm didn't know that. We tried everything to cut the stupid thing off. But then, what else could we do? We had to call DFIL. Poor man. So I sat with DSIL in her very warm house (the phone and the air were both out.) and waited for DFIL. He came BACK out to help, after a long day of missed flights and bus trips. He cut the wires to the stupid alarm thingy that makes noise, and discovered that lightning had taken out the phone, the alarm, and the air. Sigh. Mystery solved. Sis-in-law went home with DFIL to spend the night. I finally went home and went to bed.

And all this was on Monday.

3)The rest of the week I wore a nurse's cap as I shuttled various people to the doctor, the pharmacy, and to bed to recover from earaches. We did school, too, starting Algebra (eeek!) and our new year at Classical. Somehow, along the way, we got laundry done and dinners cooked and teeth brushed and stories read. But now, it is the end of the week, and I am tired.

I think I need a vacation.

But not to Costa Rica.