What a Day

I woke up feeling refreshed which is unusual. So often when I have to leave my house at 6:30am to go to work, for some strange reason I am not able to get a good night sleep. Must be psychosomatic fear that I might over sleep. I already packed my lunch and my coffee to keep me awake while I am driving through the pitch black morning.

The road is icy. I considered how I hated driving. My early years of my marriage, I drove to work, to church, and to the grocery store. When children came, I drove to their schools(one year I had 3 kids in 3 different schools), ballet classes, soccer meets, and to libraries. My driving muscle grew as my family grew. As I was driving on sheet of ice this morning, I was quite proud of myself. It is exciting that I am driving up to 60 mile distance to get to work through rain, snow, sleet, hail, storm, whatever the weather was dishing out for the day with out much consequence other than taking extra time. One time I got a ticket because it was safer for me to pass the red light rather than trying to stop a sliding car. But I also enjoyed the beauty of sunshine and sweet wind and the expanse of country driving.

This morning was the worst. Just a touch of the break pad caused the car to slide to the curve. Very carefully I drove past our block, turning onto SR 119. I saw the stop sign way in front of me. It must be a mile, maybe half a mile down the slope. I was sliding. My feet was not on gas pedal. Way down there, I see at least 5 or 6 cars with emergency light flashing. There must be an accident. I put my foot on the break every so gently. The car swerved, hits the snow bank to the right, then bounced off and slid into the center and then I did a slow motion U turn on the ice against my will. Soon I was on the other lane facing the opposite way. I tried to gently press the gas pedal and move up the hill. I went no where. The wheels ran in place. I called Bob (my scheduling pharmacist who sends me to different pharmacies as needed) and told him of my dilemma. As I was describing what happened, then my cell phone died. I thought I must wait until state police found me. I was only 3 miles from home.

Almost 2 hours later I was in the safety of my home. A young man whose car had stranded a little ahead of me, pushed his car to the plateau of the slope. He walked down some distance to my car and offered to push my car. He pushed my car to the plateau as I steered. Before I could fully express my gratitude, he drove away. When I entered home, Lizy was in tears, so happy that I had gotten home safe. Tom and his dad was out to rescue me. With dead cell phone, I was not able to inform them of my situation. The last contact they had was when I called to let them know that I was stuck and that my cell phone was dying. Tom and his dad was equipped with sand, pick, and shovel. Fortunately I called him before they got to that down graded slope. Then I called Bob. He was so worried about me. He thought I got into an accident or I must be in a ditch. Feeling helpless, he called Tom. Bob told me not to worry and stay home and rest.

We (Tom and I) went to grocery store and bought enough to take care of 6 young people (my 3 older kids and their special someones) that are coming tomorrow. Imagine 10 people eating continually though out the day. Yet I was so excited. I spent the whole day cooking. Tom was busy cleaning. I could not have prepared so much food if I were working today and was grateful that I had opportunity to be home. Then I learned that Christian and Cora, and Seth and Olivia were coming ...today...(they were scheduled to come tomorrow).

Soon they were home, in Goshen. After hugs and greetings I lead them to the dining room. I made a huge pot of Borcht (slavic soup heavy in meat). My intention was that this could fill in the gap between meals when anyone was hungry through out the weekend. I then learned that both Cora and Olivia were vegetarians. All of my cooking were heavy in meat (like most American food). With the help of the girls, we rushed to make some non-meat dinner (spaghetti sauce with peas and carrots) and noodles.

I am tired. I worked non stop today. What fortunate thing that icy roads prevented me from going to work. The young people and Tom were playing volleyball in the living room and I sat on the couch enjoying of their immersion in joy and laughter. The ball was globe balloon. The game was to catch, hit, or throw the ball while you are in the air (your feet cannot be on the floor during any action). It was fun to watch. It was a fun day.
I was so happy I was home today.