It’s either too much excitement today or too much caffeine or not enough sleep or too many decisions to be made or someone spiked my M&Ms, but holy smokes I’m wired. This has been a day and I feel an urgent need to share it with you. Why? Because … oh heck, I have no idea, but here it is.
I woke up this morning about 6:30 and saw that there was snow pouring out of the sky and my Jeep was really covered. What in the world? This was NOT in the forecast. Max was supposed to drive up this afternoon and … NO!!! So, I called him and told him that we might need to re-think this trip. I love Iowa, but county and gravel roads just after a snowstorm can be a little iffy. He was disappointed, but we knew we’d revisit it throughout the day.
My neighbor came over about 10:30 to plow my lane and the sun was shining. After he left, I packed the rest of the books that needed to be mailed into the Jeep and started for Stratford. I hadn’t gone 1/2 mile when the Jeep died. It started again, then died. I managed to get into his (my neighbor’s) driveway and off the road and when the car finally warmed up, I went on in to town (stupid Jeep).
When I got to the Post Office, I arrived 7 minutes before she re-opened after her lunch break. Nan (the post-mistress) is wonderful. I love her. While I was waiting, the FedEx driver who’d managed to get her van stuck at my place yesterday, walked in with a bag of packages. Nan opened the window right on time and I asked what the driver’s name was … Tina. Then I mentioned that Tina had gotten stuck at my place and of course, Nan already knew all about it. They’d talked. I told Nan that FedEx could drop packages for me at the post office and she assured me that she would tell Tina. Have I mentioned that I love small-town America?
I went to the grocery store to buy food for the weekend, just in case Max was able to come. Then I called him and said, “Yes, this should work.” We were back on.
The gravel road leading to my cabin is wonderfully maintained, but the driver hadn’t gotten to it yet this morning – which meant I was worried about Max’s little car coming in. My Jeep is fine – it negotiates excess snow with no problem. I knew, though, that Max could park in Stratford and I could go get him.
Driving back to the cabin, I watched my coolant temperature gauge creep up. What? I got back to the cabin and it was burying itself in the red. Holy growl. I panicked. After I settled down, I called the garage in Webster City. The last time they did work for me was in June 2012. He remembered me. Have I mentioned that I love small town America?
But now I was worried about being able to get Max in here, so I called him again and cancelled the weekend. It wasn’t worth worrying about him ending up in a ditch and me being stranded here with no vehicle.
Chris, from the garage was sure it was my water pump. I shouldn’t drive it in. I called AAA, but was still worried about the fact that the maintainer hadn’t been through yet. They should call me before they left.
Voila! The grader went past my lane just before the tow driver called me. I began explaining where I lived, that I had a narrow lane, and he laughed. He had been here last fall pulling out my air conditioner maintenance guy who had managed to pick up some (not one, some) nails in his tires). He knew where I lived and he knew my lane. It was no problem. Have I mentioned that I love small town America?
The next time I looked up, I saw them walking around my Jeep. I went outside and they’d backed down that lane. This wasn’t his first rodeo, he told me. A couple of good ole boys who knew their way around. I felt really well taken care of. They hauled my Jeep out and took it into town for me, but not before chatting with me about how beautiful it is out here and how wonderful it is to see deer all year long and how they had taken snowmobile trips from Webster City to Lehigh on the frozen river bed. Have I mentioned that I love small town America?
I called Max back and told him that I knew I was giving him whiplash, but the grader had been through, sun was probably melting the rest of the snow on the highways and maybe we could do this after all. But, what if he showed up tomorrow during the light of day with warmer temperatures instead of late tonight.
That’s where we’re at now.
In the middle of all of this, TB decided that he desperately needed my attention and to let me know that, he was going to run back and forth across my desk and my keyboard, knocking things over, playing with the pencil in my hand, generally being a pest. In between one of the calls, he was driving me batty and I yelled “NO!” at him while he was sitting on the floor beside me. Rather than run away, which he used to do when I yelled, he promptly dropped on his back on the floor and gave me his cute face look.
He knows my bark is worse than my bite and I will never hurt him. I can’t believe he is no longer intimidated by my yelling. Darn it! What am I going to do now? All I could do at that point was giggle at him and tell him that I loved him. This cat is so stinkin’ smart, now he’s even figured this out! I’m going to have nothing left.
Between the stress and excitement of the morning and a whole lot of caffeine, I am wired beyond belief. But I said something today to the tow truck drivers that I’ve never said before. When I was explaining why I was here and why I loved it so much, I told them that I was an author. I’ve never said that out loud to a stranger. It felt weird. It felt good, but it felt weird. I don’t know that I really believe it, but yesterday when I was cleaning and reorganizing, I made this shelf happen and it hit me that those were MY books. I’m going to have to accept it someday, aren’t I!
