Day 184; Footnotes of…Trust Me, I Wouldn’t Signal You Wrong aka So That’s What Happens When You Leave The House

 Today will go down in the books, there’s no way that it can’t.

It started with my waking an hour early but managing to dose back off until the alarm went off on my phone.  I think I can chalk that one down as figured out (all by myself, aren’t you proud of me?). Dragging myself out of bed I made my way to let the dogs out- yes, it was me…this time.  I figured I’d better eat something before I left the house.

Yes, I was. I was leaving the house to go do something. After I ate, got dressed and managed to get both dogs back inside, I drove over to where my son works to leave my Jeep. The back up camera wasn’t working..again..and I hoped he would look at it if he got a chance. A friend from our Jeep group met me there and we were off on an adventure.

The group was going to take part in an Independence Day Parade. We were meeting at the group’s creator’s home to finish decorating Jeeps and then off to the nearby school to find our place in line. I had wanted to participate, but since I haven’t driven in a Jeep convoy yet, I didn’t want to drive. So I was riding shotgun and would be tossing candy along the route. When we arrived at the house, Jeeps were everywhere, literally. We parked and waited for time to go, watching as the others arrived.

Once time came, we made our way to the school. There were so many Jeeps that they couldn’t fit us all in one area. How many you ask? Sixty. And we were packed in like sardines to wait for the signal to move. At that point I was very glad I wasn’t driving. 

Once we were underway I had a bowel of candy at my feet and one in my lap. Almost immediately we were rolling past family and children. Children ready and waiting for candy. Which we provided by the pound. All along the route we saw some very appropriately dressed people, we saw plenty of flags. We were smiled at, waved at, spoken to as we passed. We tossed candy to kids and kids at heart, which included police officers who caught what I tossed and grinned happily. I will admit that there may have been a near miss or two with the candy tossing and over excited youngsters who moved quicker and closer than expected but I managed to not hit any kids with candy. Barely.

As for the rest of the parade, I really don’t know what all was in front of us, I know there was a float made to look like a covered wagon and a banana-mobile, a very very large horse, and some decorated golf carts but I have no idea what else.

After the parade we decided not to visit the area where they had food and activities available. We headed on back toward our neck of the woods. I sent my son a text message letting him know we were on our way. My son being my son, didn’t respond. We got there, I got in my Jeep and was leaving. I was almost to the stop sign and out of sight, when I heard him yelling for me. He really didn’t want what they were offering for lunch would I mind going to get him something else? No, I don’t mind. Off I went to a local fast food eatery, where the drive through was lined up. Thankfully they’ve managed to get it down to an art form so it didn’t take long. I took him his food and made my way home.

I let the dogs out..again, and brewed up a pot of coffee. I then sat down to see that the blog I had scheduled to post, didn’t. So I copied and pasted what I had written and saved and posted that version. I’m guessing that somewhere down the road that post will suddenly appear at a weird time. Maybe tonight, maybe next year, or maybe it went back to last year’s date. As it is, the post is in some Twilight Zone existence.

Then I checked my email. I have over six hundred email notifications, most were from WordPress. I have worked on getting through that all day, which means that the notifications are never actually gotten all the way through.

At one point I gave up, got up and went to put up yesterday’s harvest from the garden. I got the yellow squash and sweet peppers in the freezer. I grated up the zucchini, I’m going to make some more bread, but I need to find that recipe for chocolate zucchini bread because that sounded good too. I got my son to help me bring some canning jars that I bought almost five years ago and never used in from the storage building. I’m going to do it, yes, I’m going to see if I can successfully can these tomatoes. I found a site that said you can actually can cherry tomatoes, but they may not have enough acid, I guess I’ll find out.

At one point I was sitting here, minding my own business and everyone else’s who have posted a blog or anything on social media when my son called. His car was out of gas, in a very, very, very bad location. He wanted to know if I would grab the can of gas in the garage and bring it to him. As if I would say no. With an, “I’m on my way.” I jumped, got the dogs inside, almost tripped over the cat, found my driving glasses, purse and out the door I went. I grabbed the gas can, which I’m sure he’s glad he hadn’t touched once he filled it, and headed for where he waited.

 His car had ran out of gas in one of the curves coming up a hill on his way home. This stretch of roadway is notorious for wrecks. He was behind his car, flashers going and trying to direct traffic. He told me to go turn around and pull in front of his car. I managed to do that, have I mentioned I really do not like to back up? But I managed. He wanted me to pour the gas into his car while he directed traffic. That is a really odd gas can and I simply could not manage to operate it as needed. So he took the gas can and I began directing traffic. We could see around the curve, drivers traveling in either direction could not.

He pour gas into his car and hoped he had poured enough. Once the traffic was clear I got in my car and pulled up. He hadn’t, his car wouldn’t start. I began backing up again, only to hear my back up alarm going insane. I looked and what do you know, the camera was working again. I stopped, got back out and directed traffic once again while he poured all of the gas from the can into his car.

 It was interesting and somewhat frustrating when you’re trying to help people get around an obstacle safely and they don’t trust you. I mean, do I look to be the type person who would cause someone to have an accident? Don’t answer that.

 Once he had all the gas in the car, I went back to my Jeep and waited. His car fired right up and we headed up the road. I went home, he went to fill up that boat of a car.

 When he got home he told me that left over spaghetti was fine for supper so I went and tried to get some walking in for the day. I managed almost but not quite six thousand steps. But that is better than none. I really need to start moving more. I think a trip to the mountain is in order.

Right now, as I sit here writing this, both dogs are inside trying to ignore the fireworks going off all around us. Its funny, I’m sitting here, thinking back over the day, and wondering, so this is what happens when you leave the house, adventures.

And for the record, not only did my son tell me thank you for coming to his rescue, he did give me permission to share. I guess now even he can see the humor in the situation.

A Compass named Star