"Uh Oh." said Caleb. "What is it, Mom?" (We go through these cycles all the time. You know, I make a complaint, everyone does really good for a while, then it's back to the same thing. So i said "From now on, I will only wash clothes that are brought down and sorted in the hampers in the laundry room. That means that you take your own hamper down and sort it and turn them right side out......all of your clothes. I will not wash waded up socks anymore." For some reason, I felt like I had heard someone say something like that before. Hmmm......
Last Friday Mike and I ventured out on a date in the middle of a snowstorm. A really wet, slick, messy snow storm. We didn't know before how bad it was going to be. So dropped off the kids at the babysitters, then headed out to dinner then to run some errands. (Don't ALL great dates include running errands???) We got to the babysitters to pick up the kids at about 10:00. By this time the roads were slicker than snot. We made it out to our town, turned onto the road that leads to our road...then the trouble started. (Mike was following me in the car because I had met him in town.) I tried to make it up the hill once, then twice and still didn't make it to the top. Then Mike said "You take the car, I think I can get the van up." So he took the van, drove it up the hill of th main road to the bottom of our hill, which he couldn't get up. So he sent Caleb, Lundi and Lauren walking up the hill to the house (in the snow, Lauren was wearing a dress and Lundi had shoes on without socks. She had gotten them wet earlier and had taken them off). In the meantime I was making yet another attempt to climb the hill and eventually wound up in the ditch. So I called Mike and said "This time I am really stuck, we need to call a tow truck. Why don't you call Tricia (the neighbor) to come down and get me (she has a 4-wheel drive), I'll go home and get the kids to bed and you can come down and wait for the tow truck." "OK, that's a good plan."
So Tricia came down to get me, on the way back we stopped at the van to get Harrison and Liam, who were still in the van with Mike. So I came in and put all the kids to bed. By this time it was 11:30 or so......way too late. Mike was on the phone with AAA to try to get a tow truck to come pull the car out of the ditch. After that he called me to say that they would be there in a couple of hours. So I asked him, how are you going to get the van and the car home? He said "I'm not. I went down and parked the van at town hall then walked back up to the car. We'll go get the van in the morning."
Small towns do have their drawbacks.....
So......Mike was stranded a mile and a half from home, didn't have boots on and had no definate time as to when he would be rescued. The normal procedure (in our town) to get a road plowed in the middle of the night is to call the sheriffs department. The only problem with that is Mister Snow Plow doesn't like to be told when to plow. He is known as the town bully. If you call and complain about how he is or isn't doing his job, he will take out your mailbox. Ask anyone whe lives here, they will tell you. But on Friday night, we really felt like we had no choice. "We'll fix the mailbox" (again) we thought. So finally, at 2:30, the tow truck comes, uses his wynch and pulls Mike out of the ditch. So then he drives to the bottom of our hill and waits for our road to be plowed. While he was sitting there, Mister Snow Plow passed him by FIVE times, without going up our hill to plow it or even stopping to ask if Mike was OK. So finally, at 3:10 Mike gives up and walked up our hill. The next morning he went down to retrieve the car with shovel in hand, planning to dig it out. (A few years ago we had to leave the car down there and he totally packed it in). But....the car was GONE....as in towed. So he comes home, gets on the phone to figure out where the car was. Come to find it had been towed at 3:15am. We were so mad! We called the town Selectman to complain and he said it was "just our misfortune." You know me...I will be at their 7:00 meeting at the Town Hall on Monday night!!! I don't care about the $75.00 inpounding fee we had to pay. It's not about that. I want someone else to bid on the plowing job next year. Or I want the Selectmen to hold him accountable for the damage he does when he is mad at the people in the town for calling him out to plow. Isn't this bullying....adult style? Enough is enough. I don't know if what I say will make a difference, but I have a voice and I will be heard.
I would be ungrateful if I didn't share the good things that came out of this experience. The neighbor, whom I have not met (they just moved in and when the kids took then cookies I stayed home with the baby) took Mike to get the van. Then on his way back home he stopped and sanded our (very icy) driveway. I was so grateful. Also, we learned who our town Selectmen are. That evening we were responsible for snow removal at the church. After we retrieved the car, we loaded all the kids inthe van and headed to the church. We were so grateful to see that most of it had been done by another brother in the ward, the one that Mike is paired up with. The Lord must have told him about our terrible day. Again, we were so grateful. The biggest blessing of all....Caleb, Lundi and Harrison bore their testimonies on Sunday. I'm not sure how it all ties together, but the Lord truely does bless us for our efforts and often sends many tender mercies to let us know how much He loves us. I love him, too. With all my heart.
KKS
PS-- My spell check isn't working, bear with me until Mike is available to fix it.
1 comment:
That was a ROTTEN night! How Rude! I'd be out for blood! By the way, my spell check isn't working either. Can you let me know when yours is fixed, please?
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