"It may well wait a century for a reader, as God has waited six thousand years for an observer."
— John Kepler
I realize that it's been a month or more since I've filed an entry here, but take my word for it — it would have been depressing reading!
On December 12, on my way home from work, my beloved Jeep Wrangler threw a rod, blowing two holes in the engine block. Can you spell "screwed?" I had to have the poor thing towed, and had to liquidate some of my investments to get the funds to have a new motor put in. And then I had to wait for the transactions to clear ... so it was Christmas before I could actually give the garage the go-ahead to install a rebuilt engine.
For nearly a week, I was a pedestrian. And when you live across the street from a dairy farm (or was up until November), that can really suck!. Fortunately, I live within walking distance of a convenience store, so at least I could avail myself of life's necessities. But commuting to work was a nightmare!
I had virtually no cash on hand, although I had resources that I could access within one or two business days. So I reserved a car for the following week, when I knew I'd have funds.
I won't go into the difficulties of getting up, ready, and out of the house in order to catch a 7:00 a.m. bus to Albany... But suffice it to say that they pale in comparison to my ordeals in trying to get home from the bus stop!
The first night I returned via bus was a Friday night (I'd missed two days of work, one because I needed to engineer a recovery plan and the other because I didn't have a ride to the bus). Because I knew that I'd have two days holed up in rural bliss — and because I was already sick of soup and hot dogs — I decided to walk the four or five blocks from the bus stop to the local grocery store, stock up on supplies, and call a cab to go home.
I had stupidly carried my normal tote bag, filled with heavy paper file folders and books. That was my first mistake. By the time I reached the grocery store, my back was killing me. I gratefully put the tote bag into a grocery cart and worked my way through the crowded aisles. I got enough food for several days and checked out, then went outside to call a cab.
There was no answer at the cab company. I called half a dozen times, let it ring until my cell phone terminated the call, but to no avail. And there is only one cab company in the town where I caught the bus. So there I was, four miles from my house with a cart full of groceries and no way to get them (or me, for that matter) home. I called my friend Chris, only to find that he was working and could not come for me for at least the next four hours.
Chris tried the cab company from a land line, and didn't get an answer either. He called the local police and they gave him the name of the next closest cab company, 10 miles away. Chris called them to see if they'd pick me up and take me home; they said yes, but they'd charge $18. I would have paid it, but didn't have it. There was no help for it — I'd have to walk. And the only way to get the groceries home was to "borrow" a shopping cart. How humiliating!
The other thing I need to explain about my route home is that it was a state highway. That means no sidewalks, and the one snow- and ice-covered shoulder was only 2 feet wide and left me walking with my back to traffic. Along which I was trying to push a shopping cart. Wearing sneakers. With constant traffic, many of whom seemed to find my dilemma quite amusing.
I'd made it about a third of the way, just past the steepest uphill grade on my route, when Chris called. He'd kept calling the cab company and someone finally picked up. They were on their way to pick me up.
I was never so happy to see a taxi in my life!
The other significant impact that this had on my life was that I couldn't make the trip to my mother's house to care for her. I haven't mentioned her before, but my mom is a retired civil servant, blind, an insulin-dependent diabetic and had a kidney transplant in late July, 2000. We have a companion that spends about 30 hours a week with her, but I am responsible for taking care of her correspondence, doing her grocery shopping and paying her bills. If you can believe it, my mom lives in an even more inaccessible location than I do. So for the week it took me to get a rental car, she was on her own.
Now it's January 5, and although my car was promised for today, it isn't ready. The garage tells me there's an 85% chance it will be ready for tomorrow, but just to be on the safe side, I've called the rental company and have arranged to keep the rental car through Monday.
There's a lot more that happened in that time period, but those are sagas for another day. Right now it's 10:00 p.m. and I've just finished cleaning up some of the work left over from this week. I've been here since 8:15 this morning and I'm fried. My synapses are as slow as molasses. So, I'm outta here. Here's hoping that 2001 will begin better than 2000 ended!
