It’s the second weekend of summer and the second weekend in a row of too
many parent needs with an odd mixture of blessings thrown in like teasers to keep us
going. Wednesday, Mother and I left to go look
at a used lift recliner for Dad. Thankfully I was driving her 17 year old Lumina, because the motor blew out about 3 miles into our
journey. After an obvious "pop, jolt, and shudder," I literally felt the life drain
out of this sad ‘ole car, while I coasted down 1641 till reaching a safe place
to park. Thank goodness Mom had a towing
service card handy as well as a cheerful attitude, and Lydia, as
usual, sat quietly in the backseat without a complaint.
While waiting on a tow truck, oddly, I kept humming an old tune but
with a weird twist. “This was the day…the
Lumina…died. And we were singing…Bye,
bye Ms. American pie…” I guess my mind
was trying to lighten the craziness of the day, I don’t know. Dad was left "home alone", which we rarely do, because we didn’t
plan on being gone long. So things were
further dramatized as mom dialed their home number to try to explain to Daddy,
who can’t hear on the phone, that #1 the car was dead, #2 we hadn’t been in a
wreck, #3 we were safe, but #4 we wouldn’t be home any time soon.
Thursday, Lydia
and I made it to see the lift chair by ourselves, and made an executive decision to get it. Thursday
night Tommy and I took his 2014 Malibu
loaner car (yes his was in the hospital) over to mom’s house to see if Dad
could fit in it, saving them a major circus-like trip to the car dealership to find a car. If you’ve ever seen Daddy
transfer, you’d know why we considered this among our teaser blessings! Thankfully we were able to wedge his body into the front passenger seat without too much trouble. After taking it for a
spin around Kaufman, my parents were agreeable to buying a similar car making
that process simpler than it could have been.
Back at the house, we started moving things around to make room for Dad's recliner. It’s kinda like the book, “If You Give a Mouse
a Cookie”. To make room for the
recliner, you have to move a sleeper sofa. To make room for the sleeper sofa you have to put
a bunch of stuff in the attic as well as move two electric beds in two different places back together in a new spot. To make room for the electric beds in a new spot,
you have to move a queen size bed to my house. To make room for the queen size bed in my
house you have to move a twin bed from my house back to Mom’s house…and on it goes. Dad was
understandably agitated, and I’m fairly sure I saw Mother glaring at me a few
times as I made more unappreciated, executive decisions without much sympathy for her plight. I get it…not only did their car die, but, as
mom likes to say when Dad has a hard time handling change, “their cheese is
being moved.”
Today Tommy is renting a UHAUL to move afore mentioned “cheese” into the appropriate places
with help from Mom’s faithful yard man. My
plan is to stay out of the way and out of the line of fire while attending to my own cheese moving phobias. I’ll be cooking a meal to take later as an appeasement
offering while thanking God for the teaser blessings along the way. We’ll likely leave the car
buying till next week, spaced in and around taking Daddy to Rockwall for a heart
monitor…
