After spending four nights in a the relatively pollen-free ocean zone, I was ready to come home and face a slew of doctor and tax appointments for me and my sister.
I got up to wet pavement and sunny skies. I showered, packed, and rolled my suitcase out to the gate, along with a bag of laundry and another bag of stuff.
As I ran around the house turning off the heat, locking doors, vacuuming, and gathering the garbage, I realized it was pouring outside.
The suitcase! I threw on my raincoat and ran outside to put the stuff in the car. Everything was wet, but not too wet. The dogs were getting anxious. The sound of my suitcase zipper always puts them on edge.
Will she leave me behind? I’d better follow her every move to make sure she doesn’t forget me!
The last thing I do is pack up the soft cooler and turn off the laptop. Once it is zipped into its purple case, the dogs are in a frenzy. I slip the choke chain on the big dog and try to corral the small dog to put her in her Thunder Shirt and then her harness.
Daisy grabbed the harness out of my hand and shook it like it was a mouse. I tried four attempts to put the thunder shirt over her head. She fought me three times.
“This is why people keep giving you back!” I said. She quieted down long enough for me to slip it over her head. Then Velcro this way, then Velcro that way, and she was wrapped tight like a burrito. Then the purple harness went on, and she leapt off my lap and ran around like a mad dog.
I let the dogs into the car and shut the doors while I finished closing up the house. Then we were off. I looked at the clock in the car – 9:30.
I’ll be home by 11:30!
But that was not to be.
- Daylight Saving time started yesterday, so it was really 10:30 when I left. Instead of getting up at 6:00, the dogs had slept in until 7:00, which means I also slept in until 7:00.
- By the time we were only 30 minutes from home, the three lanes of traffic on I-680 slowed to a stop.
Accident? Road work? We inched along. I was able to take off a jacket and take some photos out the window. After a thirty-minute stretch of creeping along, I saw the culprit of the slowdown. A jack-knifed semi-trailer tractor blocked all three lanes. We had to pull onto the shoulder to get around it, three lanes merging into one. Six or so CHP and Caltrans trucks and their people supervised.
I got home, and the kitchen clock said 12:15. Not too bad, until I realized it was 1:15. I had a 3:00 eye doctor appointment.
Murphy’s Law – If you make an appointment on a driving day, you will get delayed. How many times had I made the trip in two hours flat? Not today.
I had to do a bunch of paperwork, scan it, and email it to an ENT doctor for tomorrow’s emergency phone appointment (more on that later). The deadline for completed paperwork to get the appointment was 3:00 p.m.
I took my salad with me to the eye appointment and ate it while my eyes dilated, multi-tasking in an awkward setting.
Still, it’s good to be home.
FIRST DATE, WORST DATE EVER! 