There is nothing quite like sitting at the computer late at night, when suddenly my daughter appears. She is holding her mouth, her face scrunched up in pain. Before I can react, it happens... As it turned out, it had already happened in the bed with her mother. I think my reaction is what prompted Shan to come fully awake in an instant (which she did with the sudden realization that our daughter had started her sickness BEFORE she go to the computer room/office). I grabbed Emily up and scooted her to the bathroom. My brain had not fully kicked in, though, so I had her leaning over/into the bathtub instead of the toilet.
Though I know my Aunt relishes in details, I shall spare you those, and simply say that at 2:30 Saturday morning, Emily was finally asleep against me sitting on the couch. I had reached the point of being so sleepy I itched (not a good place for me to be), and I knew we had to lay down, no matter the consequences.
We spent much of Saturday nursing our sick child. Shan had to go to Texarkana in order to have her phone exchanged/replaced. The original plan was for all of us to go, but that was amended, to say the least... And, for all her trouble, Shan was not allowed to exchange her phone because she did not have her receipt - never mind that the stupid Sprint store could have printed one out for her, given that she bought the thing less than 30 days ago! She was ultimately told that she could use her insurance, pay $50 and have a new phone, or she could (for just $200) cancel her contract. I don't know what the ultimate outcome of all of this will be, but I can promise you that I will NEVER have a Sprint account as long as I live. Shan is going to call their customer service number and see what can be done on that front, but it would almost be worth the $200 (in my opinion - Shan will not agree, I'm sure... After all, it *IS* 200 bucks, and that's a lot to tell someone to "stick it") to cancel the plan, and be sure to let everyone in the world know how stupid the people working for Sprint really are....
I cleaned the house (or most of it...) and did most of the laundry (which, by my definition, means I washed and dried most of the clothes before Shan got home).
Shan did pick up a new net for the kids' trampoline while she was out, so on Saturday night, I went out and took the old one down. The net was so badly torn, it has separated itself into two complete rings of netting...
Then, Sunday came.
I started the day by weed whacking around our house. It's been a few weeks since I did that, so, we had something akin to a jungle in some parts of the grass next to the house (especially in back, close to the house between the shed and the air conditioner). I had decided that I would do our house first, then work on the new trampoline netting, and then weed-eat Mom's place after lunch. Oh, before I forget, Mom had come down Saturday evening, and ended up being sick Sunday.
After I got the new net out of the van, Tyler had come out to help. Tyler is very "hands-off" when it comes to work, especially outdoor work, so I knew he was anxious to get the new net up so he and his sister could jump around.
We laid out the posts, and Tyler helped me put them together, and then he helped me attached one of the "arches" to the trampoline itself. Before long, Shan and Emily had come out and it was a family affair. Once the arches were up, we moved on to the netting. Now, I don't know if the company just put the wrong number of ropes in the box or what, but before we had finally assembled everything, we realized we were short a section of rope. Not because it was missing from the box, but because we think our trampoline is a different brand than the netting, so the netting maker had figured enough rope for THEIR trampolines - though the box does say for ALL 14-foot trampolines... At any rate, during the course of putting the thing together, Shan made the comment that I was getting sunburned. I was not grasping the level of sunburn she was talking about, so I said, "ok" or something just as stupid, and went about my business. Oh, before I forget, Shan's Mom had come out to tell us that lunch was ready, and she managed to sucked into helping us... It took longer than we thought it would, but we finally got the netting up and went to eat lunch.
After lunch, I grabbed the weed eater and started on Mom's jungle. I honestly can't even remember how long it had been since I did her house. I'm sure I have mentioned this before, but I have a rechargeable cordless weed eater. As heave as a gas trimmer, but without the fumes and without the cost of gas. Battery lasts about an hour or so, depending on the degree of "jungleness." I tell you this because the battery died after I had gotten about 3/4 of Mom's house done. So, I had to put it back on the charger before I could finish the job.
While the battery was charging, at some point, Emily wanted to wash her battery-operated Barbie ride-in VW Beetle. So, we loaded it up in the truck and took it Mom's so we could use her water hose. She has the head on it that lets you select various spray patterns, one of which is "Holy cow, I think you took my skin off" Jet. We used that one to give the car a good soaking.
I should stop here a moment to help you realize that I have yet to do anything about the sun's affect on my skin. Thus, I was becoming an ever-increasing example of a red neck (and arms, legs, and HEAD!).
Emily and I each had a rag and began scrubbing. The car sits outside all the time. There are no words to describe the amount of dirt and muck and who knows what else, living on this car. Part of the way through, we see wasps running for cover. I decided to remove the seat, and sure enough, we have a huge wasp nest under there! Did you know that wasps nests and spider webs can withstand some serious head-on water streams? It is quite amazing, really.
After a bit, the wasp nest was cleared (and its occupants unceremoniously stomped into the ground) along with several spider webs and their inhabitants. And after an even longer bit, the car itself was now something akin to "marbleized." We couldn't get all the dirt off, but we did the best we could. And, to boot, the thing actually still ran. Well, sort of. The battery, after sustaining 100+ degree heat, was in bad shape (as if it had caved in on itself, really). I will buy a new one at Wally World, assuming I can get the right one.
At some point, and I have no idea what time it was, I grabbed the trimmer and finished the job at Mom's place. Once done with that, I used up the rest of the battery whacking weeds (and unwanted grass) from under the camper trailer.
I am burned to the point it is very obvious that I spent the day outside in the sun without doing anything to protect myself. Basically, I have the, "Yes, I did not use sunblock, I'm an idiot" markings on my head, arms, neck, and backs of my legs... I would do the "coulda had a V8" smack to my forehead, but really, the pain would be too great...
My arms are like jelly, and helping Shan sort/put away clothes tonight felt like every article of clothing weighed 90 pounds... I'll probably end up with carpal tunnel simply based on the fact that I am too wiped out to life my arms and hands to the proper positions... Wait, I don't do that anyhow... :-)
After all was said and done, Shan's sister and her husband bought their first NEW vehicle today! They bought a maroon Jeep Patriot. It is a mid-sized SUV, and it looks very nice! They got the 4WD Trail-Rated edition.
(This is not theirs, but theirs looks like it!)
After talking to my Brother-in-Law a few days ago, I decided to install Far Cry on my computer. I haven't played the game for a long time, and I had not even tried it on my new dual-core, sli-based computer. I just have two words: HOLY SMOKES!! This game rocks on my new box! Being able to ramp the graphics up to max puts a whole new spin on things! Excellent game! :-)
OJ got arrested for his trouble (trying to "reclaim" some "stolen" memorabilia... I am not surprised....
As usual, I had more to say, but the brain wandered (so much so, in fact that I had originally typed "barin" there). Thus, I bid you all a good night...
Wait. Em got sick, violently ill, at 2:30 in the morning and that's it? She's out helping with the trmpoline netteing and washing her Barbie car? Then your mom got sick? I definitely need more details. Did they have food poisoning from the restaurant? A 24 hr bug? What? I hate when you leave me hangin' in the middle like that.............
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