A day of waiting, losing my temper, and a little prepping

I got little accomplished today as far as taking care of things I needed to take care of.  Sometimes you just have those days.  This morning I had a meeting at the school for one of the grand kids.  That went well enough. 

Then I headed over to the hospital to hang out with a friend having hernia surgery.  The friend was scheduled to arrive at noon.  I got a text saying the hospital said they were running ahead of schedule and could he get there by eleven.  His brother drove him over and I met them there as he was getting registered.  We hung out in the waiting room for about an hour.  Then he was called back into the preop area where he changed into those pleasant looking hospital gowns.  His brother sat with him for about a half hour then I was called in to hang out until surgery time.  Brother was going to take off for a while since only one person was allowed in the back with the patient. Originally surgery was scheduled for two so we figured it would be rescheduled for one. 

One o'clock rolled around.  Then two o'clock.  The nurse came in to say that there were complications with the previous surgery and it was still going on.  Three o'clock rolled around.  My friend's granddaughter was planning on showing up right when he would be waking up from the surgery...at three.  He hadn't even gotten in.  Finally at 3:30 they rolled him out of the room at to surgery.  I contacted his brother and granddaughter to tell them to be back at the hospital around 5:30.  He should be in recovery around then and ready for them to come in to see him. 

I had to leave around 5:45 to get home for the grand kids.  I had made arrangements for them to not get home from school until about six.  My friend's granddaughter showed up at 5:45, his brother didn't get back before I left. 

The friend is fine.  This is his third surgery in the past year.  He's in his mid-sixties and on about a dozen different medications.  Most of his medical issues are because he is overweight.  He's lost about 100 pounds but he's still 100 pounds over weight!  Carrying that load around is really damaging to a body.  I couldn't imagine carrying around 4 extra sacks of chicken food each minute of my life.  That's what those 200 pounds were.  So now, he's lost weight and only carries around two extra sacks of chicken food. 

I got home right at six.  I beat the grand kids by ten minutes.  Fortunately we were having left overs for dinner so the dinner was ready right when they came in the door.  We ate and while they were preparing for bed I finally was able to get to the computer and do a little office work.  Twenty something emails.  A slow day.  Then I saw one from the teacher.  Not a teacher the kids have this year but the teacher that I didn't get along with last year was emailing about boy.  She wrote that he came to her class today for a writing assignment and didn't have paper or pencils.  She stated that I need to make sure the kids come to school with the proper supplies, otherwise they won't be able to be successful.  She implied that I was once again a bad (grand)parent. 

Not only am I tired but I'm hopping mad at boy and at the teacher.  We have about 50 pencils in the drawer that boy can help himself to at any time.  There's also about 1000 sheets of notebook paper.  Then I remembered looking in boy's backpack yesterday and he had paper and pencils then.  I took a look at the backpack tonight and what do you know?  About 50 sheets of paper and three pencils were in the backpack.  So he lied because he didn't feel like doing the assignment and the teacher sent an email accusing me of not being a good parent and supporting the needs of the children.   This is the same teacher who last year made the stupid comment that she didn't know which of us to believe, my granddaughter who was lying (so I'd buy her a new notebook and backpack) or me, who said she had school supplies.  Boy got yelled at and spanked. Of course I sent a terse email to the teacher along with photos so there was evidence that I was speaking the truth.  I think it's time for a grandparent/principal conference.   

Ok, I did a little prepping.  What did I do?  I rehung the clothesline.  Since it's suppose to rain tomorrow I decided that having the clothesline located out in the rain probably wouldn't get the clothes dried very well.  I set up an area on the patio, using the posts, to hold the clothesline.  There's now only about 40 feet of line rather than the 100 feet I have out in the open.  The clothes will also take a longer time to dry, but they will dry.  I have some indoor lines that I hang in the closet but I always worry that they will bring too much moisture into the house and will initiate a mold problem if I use them for all the laundry.  I don't want to dry the clothes in the dining room using the heat from the wood stove.  I don't care for my clothes smelling like smoke.  If it was sunny but cold the clothes would still dry if hung in the sunshine.  Our problem around here is the air is so moist during the winter that it's difficult to get clothes to dry.    Does anyone have a good system for drying clothes during the winter?  Could I set up a good clothes line in the garage, perhaps?  I could just use the propane drier...