Yesterday I ran just over 2km but had to shorten it for a variety of reasons, the chief one being that it was so hot, and also that my husband was at home, waiting for his supper, not that he can't make his own supper, in fact we ate his wonderful omelettes tonight, but he was tired and is a good, hardworking man and I wanted to spend some time with him.
Today was a strange one, full of driving and standing in queues and worrying if we were doing the right thing, and finally accomplishing this big secret thing for the boys' birthday next Thursday. But oh, what a day!
When the boys were about three they learned "Twinkle, twinkle, little star" and would stand and sing it together for anyone who wanted to listen. After being asked for the umpteenth time, they stood to sing it, and after two perfect lines, Nick changed the next two lines to "What a day, oh what a day!" So it became a refrain in our family when anyone had had a tough day.
Today reminded me of the melodrama of family life. Tim took Nick off to work this morning, a 25 minute trip, and I went for a long meander through the wonderful milkweed-full fields, with bees bobbing and butterflies fluttering, robins singing and last night's welcome raindrops still clinging to each leaf and grass-stalk. At about the time I expected Tim back, as he had taken the day off, my cellphone rang in my pocket, Nick, to ask where I was, as he needed a ride home, had got the schedules all mixed up! So Tim had to turn straight back around and fetch him, a car-ride which had taken him nearly two hours by the end of it!
And then we were off! I asked my very kind friend to take Nick to work at the Y in the afternoon, as I knew Tim and I wouldn't be back from our errands by then. We rushed up and down route 1 to try to accomplish various objectives, and at about 3.30 Matthew phoned my cell to ask if I knew when there was a commuter-rail train, but also to tell me that his phone had died! So it all seemed impossible and I told him to wait for me, that I would be there in about 45 minutes.
Hectic planning between Tim and I and finally I was nearly at the destination, listening carefully to the GPS system telling me how to get there, driving in rush-hour traffic, in Tim's stick-shift car, and my cellphone rings! Now changing gears while talking on a cell leads to disjointed conversation, to say the least. It was my daughter in England, asking me where on earth I was, as she had been trying to get hold of me. When I asked how she was she burst into tears and cried out that someone had died! Shocked, struggling to maintain the gear I was in and keep going up a narrow hilly road in the middle of the busy town, I asked, "Who died?" and she repeated, "Don't die, Mom!" And then I realised what she was saying and why, as her friend's mother is dying, and I just managed to say, "You'll be alright, I promise I'm not planning to die any time soon, Em!" and my phone died!
There was more rushing up and down highways in order to get people to their requisite destinations, and at last there was just Tim and I sitting on the deck drinking beer, with the black happy Molly-dog and the frail elderly Lily-cat lying at our feet. "What-a-day, Oh-what-a-day!"
It reminded me of a moment at 16 Cross Street, in about 1996, with me standing at the open door, Emma's boyfriend on the other side of the metal-barred gate, distraught, Emma pulling on my arm, telling me that I had to take him in, he had to live with us because he had had a huge fight with his parents who had "thrown him out". Me standing there indecisive, not knowing really what to do, when four-year old Matthew comes up to me stark naked, (Nick behind him as his wingman, wearing only a superman cape), and tells me in no uncertain terms, that they are "never bathing again!" There was also a dog barking, if I recall correctly, three cats slipping in and out around my ankles, miaowing for their supper, and loud music coming from Jessica's room. What-a-day, Oh, what-a-day!
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