my summer vacation

i'm having trouble with my blog these days.  the problem is that the only people i have stories about are the same people who read my blog - well, like you. and you know how you are. you get all mad when i tell your embarrassing stories on the internet.  fortunately, my dad (randy joe, as you may know him) doesn't know "how to work" the computer, so i can tell you about his brief appearance during my summer vacation.

as many of you may be aware, from the end of may until mid-august, schools no longer allow you to drop off your children from 7:45am to 2:30pm on monday through friday.  so this year, on may 25th, my children began spending their days lounging about on the couch complaining of boredom and demanding various meals and snacks throughout the day.  that about sums up the month of june at our house.

in july, my sister and her husband and their 2-year-old son came to visit. if the story of their visit were broken down into bullet points, it would look something like this:

• flight cancelled
• torrential rains (during purported drought)
• vomit in car
• my mom (ronnie) comes to visit
• my mom (ronnie) breaks her arm
• randy joe gets pissed off
• everyone says goodbye 

i will spare you the details of the first three bullet points.  and really, the actual fall that my mom took while walking my dogs at dusk isn't all that exciting other than the fact that it resulted in a broken arm.  after the fall, when my mom wasn't able to get up, my husband steve recognized that her arm was broken.  he wrapped it up securely and we decided to wait until the next morning to take her in for x-rays.  we also decide that it would be best to wait until morning to notify randy joe. 

because my father is not known for handling the unexpected very well (colossal understatement), we had to decide that morning who would make the dreaded call.  my mom argued that she was not able to make the call since she had injured her "dialing arm."  my sister and i agreed that we were not good candidates as we may be targets for his anger since we had encouraged her to come without him (he is averse to leaving his home).  and so it was decided that news of a broken arm should come from a medical professional - steve.  to everyone's relief, steve didn't seem to mind.  my dad listened as he was told the news of the fall, the x-rays to come and that my mom would be unable to drive back home that day as planned.  steve ended with "well, do you want to talk to ronnie?" to which my dad responded, "no, i've heard all i need to hear."

but as is typical for randy joe, he processed the information, made some phone calls, paced around his living room and came up with a plan.  and so the next day, he left nashville, georgia, at 7am sharp, drove straight to my house - no stops - and picked up my mom and took her back to the safety of their home.  for the most part, he has recovered from the ordeal.  when i call, he still shares with me, at length, the burdens and aggravations of having a spouse with a broken arm.  funny, i don't remember my mom complaining at all. 

the next day, my sister and her family flew back home. and we finished out the summer the same way we started it - the couch, the boredom, the snacks.