I'm fine....really!
The past few weeks (since Carey’s wedding) have been crazy. During the planning stages of the wedding, our swimming pool had to be drained and repainted. Drained, because of an icky mustard algae that we had been fighting all summer and painted because the pool needed it and since it was already empty we figured it would make sense. What on Earth were we thinking?
It took Carey and crew almost 10 days to get to California – not because they were sightseeing along the way mind you – but because anything crazy that could befall them did, and anything that could break, did so several times.
The day before they were scheduled to leave, TJ broke his collarbone. That involved a visit to St. Francis Bartlett where a former Nazi works in triage. Also, that day, Carey and Travis came down with the same stomach virus that Nathanial and TJ had two days before the wedding and Brandy got the DAY OF THE WEDDING. I came in to school that morning, got a sub, and went home to try and sort through the chaos. They were supposed to leave early Saturday morning – nadda – Carey couldn’t drive because he was still throwing up. Brandy couldn’t drive because we just would not let her (another story, another day). They finally left around 6:00 pm and Carey was still sick. On the second day they were just on the other side of OK City when the brakes on his truck starting making a howling sound. They found a motel and a place to look at the brakes. At first they were told it would cost them around $900 to get the brakes fixed, but I think the people at the brake shop felt sorry for them and lowered the cost to just under $500. Of course, they may have just wanted them to leave. The 3 boys had been strapped in to the backseat of the truck for 48 hours and were crazed (more so than usual). At about midday, Brady came down with the intestinal version of the stomach virus that had terrorized everyone else. According to Carey, Brady was just standing in the reception area of the brake place when what appeared to be lava poured forth from his diaper. I think you get the picture.
But wait, if you order within the next hour, you will receive a second set of gingsu knives........
Forty miles down the road, Carey smelled something burning and noticed some blackish liquid spewing from under his truck – hitting Brandy’s car – which was in-tow behind him. It is getting dark, they had been sitting in the brake shop all day, Brady still has volcanic diarrhea and Carey’s outlook on life is, at best, grim. He thinks the car is on fire and yells to Brandy to get the boys out of the truck and run. By the time he realized that they are not about to see all their belongings go up in flames, Brandy and the kids are 100 yards out in the middle of a field.
Miraculously, the truck will still move so they creep along the interstate, with emergency flashers blinking, to the first exit with a place to stay – The Vagabond Inn. Travis insists it was probably the Bates Motel. Just before exiting the interstate, a pickup truck with blacked-out windows pulled along side of them, slowed down and paced Carey’s vehicle. After the truck pulled ahead, Carey saw a very large cross standing upright in the middle of its bed, which upon closer inspection, closely resembled those giant crosses out by the interstate at Bellevue. The truck then sped off at a high rate of speed. Yikes!
Carey’s old truck finally bit the dust in the desert near Albuquerque. I truly hoped for a decent burial of the thing but no one ever listens to their mothers any more.....after renting a U-Haul, they off-loaded everything out of the dead truck and Brandy’s car, loaded up the U-Haul, took Brandy’s car out-of-tow, put Carey’s truck in-tow and began their journey once again – this time with Carey driving the U-Haul, pulling his truck, and Brandy driving her car. Did I mention that we don’t like for Brandy to drive? Carey talked regularly with his Chief at the base in Petaluma explaining every disaster du jour. I’ve always said if Carey didn’t have bad luck, he’d have no luck at all.......sounds like a country music song!
And yes, they did FINALLY arrive at the base in Petaluma, they are almost settled into base housing, and Carey starts school today. I hope when Carey and Brandy are MUCH, MUCH older they will look back on this trip and laugh. What a honeymoon!
So, as you can see......I’m fine!