In the Information Age

So far we have:
Wolfie
lil'Wolfie
Lesli
Kassha
Mrs. Kassha
Zelrig
& Nob

Last night was when it all started, and like so many things, it all happened at once. The downstairs toilet started backing up and gracefully rolling raw sewage onto floor, which then traveled in a slow but determined manner into the laundry room...giving all the dirty clothes on the floor that extra push towards needing to be washed right away!, and eventually meandering into the kitchen where things like raw sewage are enemies to be vanquished as quickly as possible. Of course, an after-hours emergency call to a plumber couldn't be the end of all that seemed to happen at once.

The middle child needed retrieving from football practice leaving me with the incessantly barking huge dog, the strange snake-bearing man in my front yard, the 2 other children, and the impending delivery of a pizza.

The pizza made its appearance just as the husband and middle son arrived, adding to the bedlam. As I juggled dogs, an excited son who wanted to tell me all about his day, a daughter who kept wandering off as I was trying to hand her pizzas & drinks, a husband who was attempting to get past me to get into the house, aaaand sign and tip the delivery guy the phone, of course, started to ring.

After getting everyone and thing into the house the husband answred it. Woohoo! An oppertunity to take part in a Town Hall meeting with our Congressman. I knew what this meant to him, so I assured him I could handle everything else. Which I managed fairly well, really. Lesli called to say she was on her way, the snake-bearing plumbing guy walked in and seemed as shocked to see me as I was to see him (mostly I was surprised by his youth and his openness...my fears of the stranger evaporated). While juggling the Town Hall on the phone the husband found some plumbing access point that had been expertly squirrelled away under the front bushes and the ivy ground cover. This avoided major surgy on the house's plumbing and, instead, it underwent an outpatient procedure (saving us a few hundred dollars along the way).

The plumber left, happy not to have had to come in to the house of children, computer games, and barking dogs just before Lesli arrived.

It would be hard to exagerate how grateful I am for her. She's a remarkable woman in her own right, and has a large gentle and kind heart. I remember her coming in, I remember going into the living room to try and help fold laundry and to tell her the goodnews about Little Man (after all, I think a lot of the confidence he found in reading came from her private lessons)...the next thing I remember is counting by twos, somewhere around 60, I think. Lesli was hugging me from behind, leaned awkwardly over the back of my office chair. The numbers didn't come easily, but she helped. I had a moment of being embarassed, even though I knew it wasn't a bad attack...but I dismissed it quickly, I didn't have any energy for being embarassed. We talked a bit while I came out of it and when she went to help the husband herd the children towards bed he came in to see if I was ok with her having seen that, and with her help. I had another moment of wondering if I should have been ok with it, or if I should be ashamed. I am ok, though...my friend saw the truth. She didn't run away, she still loves me...maybe loves me more since she can understand a bit more now. God gives us gifts of light even in the darkest of shadows, we just have to be willing to open our eyes and see beyond the black that seems to hover before our eyes.

I know she left at somepoint to go get Nob from the airport, and I went to bed. I took a mildly dodgy combonantion of meds, but after reading on the Net I'm certain it was well within the safe zone.

I woke this morning to my wonderful husband and the dogs, well, dogpiling me. His kisses tasted of coffee, which definately helped me shake off the last of the cobwebs. I went downstairs and said goodmorning to Nob while the husband brought me a cup of coffee.

*sigh* Unfortunately, I'm suddenly tired and I'm meant to be recouping before even more people show up. Everyone went to dinner without me, and no one made a fuss about it...which was wonderful! Some of these people are really good friends.

Hooray for the Information Age