We had a visit from mother nature last night--woke up to about a foot of snow (the large flesh colored cloud over the Mini would be my finger--that's how professional photographers do it). Liz had the pleasure of driving home from the airport in that snow. She got in around 3:30 a.m. Two of her colleagues, who were on the same flight but took a different route home, got in around 8:00 this morning. The good news is that the heavy stuff won't be here until this afternoon sometime.
Had my weekly visit to Dr. Cheson on Wednesday which was boring then exciting in turns. Got to the hospital just in time for my 10:00 appointment, then sat until 1:00 p.m. when I was finally called into the back. Dr. Cheson finally joined me around 1:30. I'm looking at my watch, getting nervous because I've got to leave by 3:00 to pick Robbie up at daycare. All was going well until Dr. Cheson listened to my lungs. I noticed he came back several times to the left side. Finally, at around 2:00 p.m., he told Jenny, the trials coordinator, "He's going to need a chest X-ray." I thought, "Oh, Crap". That "Oh, Crap" had several layers, as in "Oh Crap! I hope I get back to get Robbie on time." and "Oh Crap, Liz is in Seattle and I neglected to put a back-up in place to pick up Robbie [note to self: never assume any visit will be a 'routine' visit], and lastly, but by no means leastly, "Oh Crap, I hope I don't get admitted to the hospital!" That in itself was another nested series of "Oh Craps!" that I won't go through. Did I mention it was Robbie's birthday?
Anyway, on the way down to Radiology (sadly, I knew just where it was), I texted several people, including Liz. Liz, in turn, marshaled several back-up pick-up bodies. I got out of Radiology and waited for the good folks to read the xray. The report came back negative for pneumonia--which was Dr. Cheson's concern--in plenty of time to get Robbie. Well, not plenty: I left the hospital at 3:10, and picked him up 10 minutes before the school closed.
So all is well now. We're waiting for the promised blizzard to arrive and we have to get Liz's rental car back before the real weather hits. Wish us luck!
Addendum: You didn't wish hard enough. Though we managed to get the rental car back OK (passing several people in ditches along the way) we had our own comeuppance within 500 feet of our house. We have a 300' gravel driveway that runs slightly uphill through a growth of young pines. Our first attempt at driving up the driveway sputtered and spun to a halt on the ice below the snow. Liz decided to backup down to pavement to get more of a running start, and promptly put the right front wheel of the van in the ditch. It only took a few tries to demonstrate that the van was well and truly stuck. I went up to the house to get my 10-year-old Ram 1500 to pull her out. I backed the BFRT (Big Frickin' Red Truck) down the driveway and turned onto the lane. Unfortunately, I didn't turn soon enough, promptly putting both driver's side wheels in the ditch on the other side. Thank God for good neighbors. James to our south and Tom to our north both came out. James brought his Jeep and his wide nylon strap, and with Tom's help and advice we managed to free both vehicles. (Unmanly confession: Tom had to remind me how to get my truck into 4-wheel-drive low. Made a big difference) I was going to blame our lack of recent winter driving experience, but then I remembered that I asked you to wish us luck. Obviously, you didn't do YOUR job properly. Try harder next time.
While Tom, James, and I were getting the truck unstuck, Liz dug out a parking place for James' wife on a small side road. James stopped by a while ago to bring back our shovels. He also dropped off a chilled bottle of his homemade Gewurztraminer, a German white wine. I fear it won't be here for long. Did I mention I have great neighbors?
Addendum: You didn't wish hard enough. Though we managed to get the rental car back OK (passing several people in ditches along the way) we had our own comeuppance within 500 feet of our house. We have a 300' gravel driveway that runs slightly uphill through a growth of young pines. Our first attempt at driving up the driveway sputtered and spun to a halt on the ice below the snow. Liz decided to backup down to pavement to get more of a running start, and promptly put the right front wheel of the van in the ditch. It only took a few tries to demonstrate that the van was well and truly stuck. I went up to the house to get my 10-year-old Ram 1500 to pull her out. I backed the BFRT (Big Frickin' Red Truck) down the driveway and turned onto the lane. Unfortunately, I didn't turn soon enough, promptly putting both driver's side wheels in the ditch on the other side. Thank God for good neighbors. James to our south and Tom to our north both came out. James brought his Jeep and his wide nylon strap, and with Tom's help and advice we managed to free both vehicles. (Unmanly confession: Tom had to remind me how to get my truck into 4-wheel-drive low. Made a big difference) I was going to blame our lack of recent winter driving experience, but then I remembered that I asked you to wish us luck. Obviously, you didn't do YOUR job properly. Try harder next time.
While Tom, James, and I were getting the truck unstuck, Liz dug out a parking place for James' wife on a small side road. James stopped by a while ago to bring back our shovels. He also dropped off a chilled bottle of his homemade Gewurztraminer, a German white wine. I fear it won't be here for long. Did I mention I have great neighbors?
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