Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Freak Out




Today was a bit disconcerting. Let me preface by saying that S has preschool Tuesday and Thursday mornings. When I dropped S off at preschool this morning, her teacher said, "Hey, S, we missed you Thursday!" Then to me, "Was she not feeling well?"

. . . I'm sorry, what? She was at school Thursday, wasn't she? Um, apparently not. The teacher handed me the worksheets they had done that day for her to take home. Thank God S's teacher has been my best friend for 25 years and didn't think I was a total nut job for not realizing I hadn't brought my daughter to school.

I searched my mind frantically to figure out why S would have been gone. I'd had an interview that day, so I took the girls to my parents' house, but I could swear they only had Baby R.

When I left the preschool, I called my dad to confirm. Of course, he and Mom have no idea what they did yesterday, much less last week. So I looked at my calendar when I got home. When I did, I realized why it took me a week to post anything, and I felt slightly less guilty about why I couldn't remember the exact details of that day:

Tuesday
My dad had cataract surgery, and my mom can't drive anymore, so I needed to take him. Baby R went with us, and S had stayed late at school until I was able to pick her up.

Wednesday
Took dad to his follow up appt that lasted over an hour, even though time with the doc was less than 5 min.

Thursday
I had my second/third round interviews with a place in the morning. I was sure I had taken S to school and left Baby R with Mom and Dad? Where else could she have been? That evening S had a tantrum when I told her it was time to go inside for supper. She threw her scooter and it knocked her bicycle over causing the handlebar to hit just below her eye, scaring me to death that she'd poked it out. Once I knew she wasn't blind, I tossed her at my poor husband and left for the movies. (Cause that's how awesome and loving I am.) I had passes to a Nielsen screening for the new Adam Sandler movie "That's My Boy." I'm not allowed to comment on it yet, but when I am? You will definitely be hearing my opinion.

Friday
Kindergarten round-up. I wasn't as weepy as I thought I'd be. S did great! She didn't even panic when she and her best friend were put in separate groups. HUGE relief.

Saturday
Baby R and I cleaned the house while DH took S to Lawrence to watch the KU baseball game. We hosted a watch party for the Final Four that night - Rock Chalk! Undeservedly Shockingly, KU won!

Sunday
After church, we came home, had lunch, and then I took S to a bday party on the other side of town. It was a cool place, but we were gone ALL. DAY. Didn't get home until 6:30pm. And poor S was really struggling with her allergies. Her eyes are all red and puffy. I keep telling her not to rub them, but come on - she's 4.

Monday
Dad had been sick with a fever Friday and just had no energy through the weekend. He had asked me if I could take Mom to the store. Monday morning when I called Dad to say we were on our way over, he said he needed me to take him to the hospital or the doctor's instead since he was too weak to drive.

For those of you not living in the midwest, it was in the upper 80's, low 90's the last 3-4 days. I realize it's hard to break down and turn on the AC in March/April, but we walked into my parents' house and almost melted. They had a box fan running, but it was doing nothing to cool down the room, much less the whole house. I told Dad he needed to turn it on, he said he was going to but he needed to go downstairs to fiddle with something. I asked him why? He should just be able to change the thermostat. He said he thought when they had their new furnace and thermostat installed in February, they guy told him there was something extra that needed to be done to get the air going. I tried the thermostat. Nothing happened. No click. So he called the HVAC place to find out if there really was something special that needed to be done. There wasn't, but the woman told me to check that the unit outside was on and that the breaker didn't need to be reset. Done and done. Still nothing. She said they didn't have an opening until Wednesday, but if there was a cancellation, she'd let us know.

We all headed to the doctor's office, and the PA said his fatigue could be a sign of pneumonia even though he didn't have any other symptoms, so they did a chest x-ray. I mentioned his low hemoglobin problem from a few years ago, so they also did a blood draw. His lungs were clear, but there was a mass below his ribs they wanted to check out, so they told him they would schedule a CAT scan. The hemoglobin count came back slightly low - 10.5, but not enough to be creating such a dramatic state of fatigue. And he said it felt different than when that happened.

The HVAC place called and had a cancellation and could be there between 2-4pm. So I took them back to our house until then so they could stay cool. I put the girls down for naps - only Dad and Baby R slept, though. I went back to my parents' house to meet the HVAC guy and it turned out to just be a loose wire in the thermostat. Luckily, since they had installed it with the furnace, there was no charge.

When I got back to the house, Dad was awake and feeling much better. I told him he probably had been too hot, and that's why he felt so crappy. While we were waiting for Baby R to wake up so I could take them back home, the cable went out. Oy. About then, DH got home from his first day at his new job. YAY!!! He was immediately trying to find out about the cable since the NCAA championship game was on that night. We knew a couple of other people with issues and they had been told they would be resolved in an hour or so - plenty of time before the game.

About 20 minutes til game time, the cable still wasn't working. So I told DH he could go to his best friend's house a few blocks away. He called the cable company and told them it was crap that it wasn't fixed yet, and we had to pay to watch it online when we already get internet service through them. So they comped us. I could have tried to stream it, but all the Facebook updates were depressing. Finally a friend said I should try to watch the TV without the cable plugged in since it was on a local channel.

DUH.

I did. It worked. It was very fuzzy, but it worked. Unfortunately KU was even fuzzier, and unable to make it happen, so Kentucky became the national champion. I can't complain. KU played terribly the entire tournament. I was shocked they got as far as they did. Not bad for a rebuilding year. Love my Jayhawks.

When DH got home he called the cable company and was very nice but firm about them needing to fix the problem. After awhile, he less nice and firmer about it. That's why we make such a good team! He's so good at that stuff.

Today

DH asked me if I had gone to the basement yesterday and turned off the booster that the cable guy had installed at his last visit. I had gone to the basement, but all I had done was...  Oh. THAT's what the black box attached to the lightbulb was. I had pulled the string two or three times and the light never came one. Apparently I had been the cause of the cable FUBAR. Sorry... ahem....

After panicking about my memory lapse regarding S and preschool to my sister and one other friend, I finally remembered what happened on Thursday. (Hallelujah! I've held Mom's dementia at bay for a little while longer.) I had my interview in the morning. But DH had an interview in the afternoon. So he took the day off. I had originally asked my parents to watch the girls but told them never mind when I found out DH would be home. He was supposed to take S to school while I was getting ready. But since he's never in charge of that, he didn't remember to do it. And I should have reminded him, but I was focused on prepping for the interview. And having him home felt like Saturday, so I just completely spaced off that S had school. Ok, maybe the dementia's not that far away after all...
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