Fortunately for me, my feeling sick only lasted for 24 hours. Being the loving grandparent that I am I passed it along to Boy. Neither he nor I ate dinner last night so Girl sat at the dining room table by herself. Boy and I were camped out in the living room watching A Year in Provence. I don't know if it was because I wasn't feeling well or if my french is fading but I could only understand half of what was being said by the french neighbors. By 8:00 last night the entire house was in bed and asleep. We slept peacefully until 1:30 this morning. Then I heard Boy trying to scramble off the top bunk. Didn't happen. Good thing he didn't eat dinner! I ended up having to take the sheets off the bed and throw them into the sink in the laundry. Since the lower bed is a toddler bed for his cousins and he doesn't fit on that, I put a couple of layers of blankets onto the floor for him. And a plastic bag lined bucket. Too bad I didn't have that bucket on his bed when he went to bed.
This morning I woke up feeling almost perfect and he woke with a fever. Lucky me, he climbed into my bed. Girl brought in her frozen water bottle and he's cuddling it. He should feel better by tomorrow. Girl is praying that he does. Because she's being the wonderful, caring older sister? Not in the least! Tomorrow after religious school she was going to get her very own phone. Not if we don't go to religious school. So she's praying fervently. Girl, in your prayers for your brother to recover don't forget to throw in a little one that you want to stay well! Try to make it sincere.
Daughter-in-law called sometime this morning. She left a message for me to call son as soon as possible. They don't have long distance on their phone so someone has to hike about 1/2 mile for the cell phone to maybe work to call out. It's really stupid on their part. I told them if they really want to just wait for the long distance paperwork to come in the mail why don't they pick up a long distance phone card to at least be able to call out in the interim? No, they'd rather be stupid. But it's not this lack of intelligence that had me falling out of my sickbed with laughter this morning. It's what they had to say. I called back to hear that Daughter-in-law didn't stop at the parking lot above the creek last night on her way home from work. She drove down the dirt hill and stopped right at the edge of the creek. She realized, even at 11:00 at night that the creek was flowing pretty well. She didn't want to take a chance crossing the creek. She couldn't back the car up the hill because it was too slick. She just parked it and walked the mile home.
One of the things I love about the bug-out place is that you can't always cross the creek with a regular car or pickup. When it rains or when there's lots of snow melt you have to park and walk. One of the neighbors has made a parking lot on his property (generously and at no charge to the residents on the other side of the creek). There's a walking bridge that you need to use to get across. People who live there year round have what they call a one-mile vehicle. It's a vehicle that doesn't even have to be registered and it's used to get from their house to the creek. They then park it, walk over the bridge, get into their real vehicle and drive into town. Or, you can just no go anywhere for the days that the creek is up. The longest it's been uncrossable during the three years I've owned the place is for about a week. In total, there are about 20 days a year that you can't drive across.
Daughter-in-law blew it by not parking in the parking lot. The creek wasn't too high to get out in the morning, so the thought didn't cross her mind. It should have. Anyway, at least she stopped and parked the car. She didn't have a flashlight but since she wasn't scared of the dark, walking the mile in moonlight wasn't really a big deal. All was fine until she got home. Son decided that he had to take care of the car right at that moment. After all, midnight is a perfect time to get your car, right? He got in and realized that he, too, couldn't put the vehicle into reverse and get it back up the hill. Even in 4 wheel drive, he couldn't do it. What should he do? I know, you all know what he did! It was something I predicted prior to them moving in to the bug-out place. Let's see. Did he just leave the car there to deal with in the morning? Of course not. He decided to gun it and drive it across the creek. Bad decision. The car is still in the middle of the creek. It's not going to float down the creek because there are boulders in the middle of the creek blocking it from going downstream.
"Is it insured?" What a stupid question. Of course it was insured to pay the other guy, but not for their stupidity. Son wanted to know if I could bring my truck there and pull their car out of the creek. NO. First I'm sick and am not leaving the house. Second, my truck won't be able to pull it. My work truck maybe but I'm not using the work truck to fix your stupidity.
I told him that two of his neighbors have tractors and I also have friends who have heavy equipment. If he had left the car at the edge of the creek they could have pulled it up the hill this morning. It's not like it's blocking anyone else from crossing the creek. Who knows, someone may have already pulled it out for them. If not, and he doesn't think this is a good time to get to know his neighbors, then he should call a tow. If I was there I could use my AAA but I'm not coming. Maybe he could call his sister. Instead, he owns a flooded vehicle. Little good that will do them.
Once again, his rushing into action before thinking has put them into a huge bind that they can't fix themselves. Someone else has to help bail them out. They live 20 minutes out of the nearest small town and an hour out of the city. It's also an hour from Daughter-in-law's work and she's their only source of income. Their one and only car is sitting in the middle of a creek. They need someone to bring them to the city so they can go find some overpriced used car that they will pay a little down and lots of interest. Hopefully he will be able to talk his sister into helping. It won't be me. I'm staying home. I'm sick, Boy is sick, Girl is praying.
There comes a time it seems that experience is the only way we will learn.
ReplyDeleteHope you feel better very soon.