A Really Bad Week

This past Saturday, George and husband, Patrick, has closed off what they could of pre-Christmas deliveries. They will pick up again afterwards. My husband and children were out collecting can goods, money and making deliveries, too. I'm glad that this was planned this way. Otherwise we would have been closed down by freezing rain, sub zero cold and mounds and mounds of snow. I haven't left the house since Saturday night. And that is a story in itself.
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I'll pick that story up early on Thursday morning. My second child, my over the road truck driver, ran smack into not one, but two deer. Jon was traveling a rural highway in Illinois when they just leaped in front of him. He said it happened so fast, he never saw them. He came home soon after that because he had to have the grill on his truck repaired. He was shaken, both because of the damage, and because he is an animal lover. I think too, he might have been afraid of getting the same hell we gave Ed last year when he was assaulted by a deer when he got off at the wrong bus stop. I should point out that deer are at record highs this year and last.

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Gloria's family held their annual Christmas party on Saturday night. Jon was instructed to bring desert. So I stopped at the bakery where I used to work and ordered him an atomic cake, apple strudle and strawberry shortcake. Early Saturday afternoon he took off for Park Forest, which is way south of here. Gloria's family rents out a church hall every year because the family is so large. Jon and Gloria were instructed to set up and clean up afterwards.

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Okay, so the party ends and everyone left. He and Gloria cleaned up as instructed. Then Gloria took his keys and started his car. Then she locked the keys in the car.

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Jon called home. "Dad, can you drive out here and bring my keys?"

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Now Park Forest is one of those towns where I honestly beleive the designers should be castrated. Yes, I meant that. Castrated. This is a beautiful town, built shortly after WWII. It was an experiment in which black and white could live together in harmony, and it works. My complaint is that the idea makers next handed the planning over to these idiots who think it is so nifty to place cul-d-sacs in the middle of no where, and curvy streets that don't make any sense. They take odd angles and cut back across each other, change names when they cross main streets.

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There's a lot to be said for algebra and plain old fashioned grid plans. There should be a zero point. In Chicago it's State and Madison. All streets should be numbered consecutively in all four directions. Here in this area, main streets are four blocks apart from north to south, and 8 blocks from east to west. It's easy. I'm at 11500 south and 3200 west. How hard is that?

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Saturday night Bill told me to get dressed warmly because I would keep him company. We stopped for gas and had problems getting up the drive. It was icy and we spun our wheels. Once gassed up, we headed for the expressway. I-57 south is mostly a level above the ground. Now Bill was sorry we dropped off our last load of can goods. We needed the weight, because the wind threw us about like fluff ball in the dryer. It didn't snow so much as pick the snow already on the ground and blasted it back at us. When the wipers pushed it away, what little salt was left in the snow stained the windows. It was hard to see through the windshield, and really frightening. We finally got off some ten miles south. Conditions improved immediately.

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Bill told me to call Jon on his cell phone so he could give us directions to the church. Jon's phone was dying. He called me back on the church phone and said to use that once we turned off the main drag, which by the way was named Main Street. Gloria got on when I called back. She said turn right here, and left there, and yes, avoid that small street that curved off in the other direction. It was confusing. Twenty minutes and two wrong turns later we found the church. We weren't parked before the kids came charging into the brutal cold towards us.

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"Mom, you wouldn't believe it," Jon told me once we got him in his car and we were back on the road. "We were by ourselves in the church waiting for you guys. No one was in the church. And there were these footsteps. And they were so loud, too. And all this banging. And we couldn't find anyone. We finally watched a movie on my laptop, and turned it up as loud as we could...."

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And then yesterday..... Oh, crap, what a night. He had to be to Gary by 2PM. He sat for 4 hours waiting until someone got his truck started. The mechanics were suppose to plug it in to keep it warm after working on the grill. They didn't do it. Finally someone offered him another truck and sent him out, headed to Kalamazoo. Bill and I both balked. A little earlier we had watched the news coverage on 100 car pile up on I-90 in Monroe County, Michigan. How close that is to Kalamazoo, I don't know. It's just one of those bad feelings came over me. Us. Both of us. That was about 11PM on Sunday night.

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We next heard from him at about 5AM. He had dropped his load in Kalamazoo and was headed back. He was in the left hand lane. Behind him a pick up truck was closing, doing about 70. Jon moved over to avoid him. The guy threw a ton of snow into Jon's windshield. He couldn't see the road curve. When he called next he was sitting in a ditch along the side of the road, waiting for a tow truck. He said he took out a sign, too.

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He came home directly after rather than sleeping in Gary. He was exhausted. I fed him and he went right to bed. Even though he had to return, I knew exactly how he was feeling. After getting the hell scared out of you, there's truly no place like home and family, and being around the people who love you the most. He's back to work again, and should be home tonight or tomorrow morning. At least I know he went off with enough sleep and a couple of nutrious meals under his belt.

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We heard from him a few minutes ago. He's still on the road from last night. He said the expressway ahead of him is closed. Poor kid. Please say a prayer for him.