Kathy is helping us out so much with getting Sammy to and from where he needs to be... When she found out I had this surgery scheduled, her offer to help, especially in regard to transporting Sammy, was immediate and genuine. Also, Kathy is the type of person that thinks about the complete picture, and the resulting picture after that... I mean, she will figure out the details and ask questions or provide answers to questions I didn't yet realize needed answers. The number of times I've needed her advice and insight and her help is too numerous to count. I'm smart, but I can be scatterbrained & at times too impetuous & shortsighted, and my sister Kathy has saved my butt over and over again. I love that woman!
Kathy offered to take Sammy to school this week for us because Kev is working afternoons. Yesterday morning, Kev had to work over, and he didn't get home until around 3am or 4am. I had my cell phone alarm set for 5:50am to wake me so I could wake Sammy. This is our usual routine. I call him on his cell to wake him up in the morning so that he can get into the shower, and so that I don't have to walk up the stairs to wake him. (My ankles hate stairs first thing in the morning... they're too stiff to work well on stairs.) Sometimes I have to call Sammy 3 or 4 times before he actually wakes and answers his phone. Then sometimes he'll fall back asleep, and I have to start calling him all over again. I've taken to making him get out of bed and stand up while he's on the phone with me.
Yesterday morning, I distinctly remember my cell phone alarm going off. I called Sammy on his cell. I remember it took 3 calls to wake him and get him going into the shower. In truth, I barely remember any of this... it’s all a pain pill induced fog. Kathy arrived at about 7:00am to pick Sammy up, and he wasn’t ready. I talked with Kathy on the phone, while she was sitting in her car in our driveway waiting, & told her that I called him when my alarm went off and I didn’t know what the heck was taking him so long, and I was yelling at Sammy to hurry. Sammy being late made Kathy late for work. Dammit! I know Sammy felt awful about being late. In the car with his Aunt Kathy, Sammy told her, "I know my mom thinks she called me at 10 to 6, but she didn’t call me until 10 to 7, I swear!" I had to check my 'calls dialed' on my cell, with which I intended, of course, to prove him wrong... but it proved him right... my first call to him was a 6:49am. Somehow, I lost an hour between my alarm going off and calling Sammy. Weird. Poor Sam.
Sammy and his Aunt Kathy made a plan on the way to school. From now on, when she is to pick him up and drive him to school, Aunt Kathy will call Sammy on his cell phone at 6:00am. It’s a good plan, but I wonder if Aunt Kathy knows that it sometimes takes 3, 4, 5 or 6 calls to get the boy to answer...
This morning, I vowed to make sure Sammy was up and ready on time, so as to not make his Aunt Kathy wait for him. Sammy and I talked about it last night. He told me of his plan with his Aunt Kathy. Since I wake him at 5:50am, 10 minutes earlier than the planned call from Aunt Kathy, Sammy’s plan was to be up and out of the shower by the time Aunt Kathy’s call came through. Sammy is very aware of what a huge favor his Aunt Kathy is doing for him, carting him around so much while I still can’t drive & his Dad is working, and he doesn’t want to make her late for work again.
My alarm went off at 5:50am this morning, and Sammy answered on my first call. He was in the shower when Kathy called me... no school today.
I heard Sammy’s shower stop, and I hollered up to him, as quietly as I could holler (coz Kev was still sleeping), “Sammy, no school today.” I expected a rather unhappy reaction due to having already gotten up & taken a shower, but all I heard was a heartfelt “YES!”
And now as I sit here typing away, the house is dark and I can hear the wind outside. It’s a very strong wind. I know it’s super cold out, because I had to let Reilly out to take his morning pee. Which probably froze as soon as it left his body! Yes, it’s that cold. It's colder than a witch's... well, you get it.
I’ve got the local news on, and it’s all about the weather and school closings. It’s around 7:00 am now, and the temperature is 9 degrees F., with the wind-chill factor, it’s -19 degrees F. with the wind at about 20 mph, with gusts approaching 50 mph. Words like “fierce arctic winds” with “blowing snow” are being splashed across the TV screen.
Yesterday afternoon and early evening, we had a lot of rain, and then as the evening progressed, the temps dropped, the rain became frozen slush, then lots of snow. The wind picked up, and the roads are now treacherous... ice covered and lots of drifting snow with the high winds. There isn’t a school open anywhere near us. They’re listing the school closings at the bottom of the TV screen, and I’m reading school district names that I’ve never even heard of before... the list just keeps going and going and going. CMU is also closed this morning; Joycie said they will decide by 10am if classes will be called off for the entire day. There are a great many people without power, also. Quite the storm, and it looks like a lot more snow and super cold temperatures are in store for the rest of the week.
Along with the wind outside I’ve heard about 3 big bangs so far this morning. One seemed to bang against our house. I have a feeling that the oak trees in our yard, which always have dead branches in amongst the live branches, are fixin’ to let go some of those dead branches, because the wind gusts I’m hearing sound pretty darn persuasive... One big gust just made me feel like our whole house was fighting it. Lots of noise. House won. Thank goodness.
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