Winter storm Yugi is bearing down hard on us today, this 29th day into Spring. We have had to drive around in sleet all day long. Snow is easy, sleet is a whole nother story. It's slippery first of all. And second of all, it's deceivingly alot like rain, but it's not. And lastly, that would mean it's still COLD if it's sleeting. Not 70 degrees like we would normally be experiencing. Oh well...go with the flow, right? That's the first bit of drama.
This is a 3 part series.
Drama Number 2: Chloe and I decided to do school at the library today in one of the study rooms. We do this every so often for a change of scenery. It's fun. But today I noticed someone lurking outside our study room door. The doors are all glass and see through. At first I thought it was just someone who was using one of the other study rooms near us. He was dressed in slacks, a white button down shirt with a tie and a gold watch. However, every time I turned around and looked through the door, he was still there, looking at the same shelf he's been looking at for the past 10 minutes. The shelf that had a clear view through our door. And a few times I thought I caught him looking in at us. Strange. But I just thought it was a coincidence. Maybe he was waiting for our room to be vacant. It came time for Chloe and I to leave. We packed up our stuff and headed out of the library. The guy started following us. He suddenly didn't need anything on the shelf he spent the past 15 minutes perusing and started shadowing us on our way out. We had to walk around a wall and down a hall. Surprise...so did he. I turned around once and saw him on our tail, maybe 20 feet back. I was just telling Chloe that I would let her wait in the vestibule and would drive around and pick her up since the sleet was coming down hard, but then I noticed he was still tailing us. I changed my mind instantaneously and cheerfully announced that we would now be sprinting to the car and not looking back. Right as we started running...so did he. Creepy! I turned around once more and he caught my eye, looked away and darted off to the opposite parking lot than us. Whew. We made it to the car and I kept a look out for any signs of being followed. I made lots of stops in public places like, the drive-thru at the bank, a gas station and a random store. Thankfully, I lost my tail. But seriously, I felt like I was on a crime drama show being tailed by the FBI or something.
Drama Number 3: As if that wasn't enough drama for one day, I was the recipient of one more random act of craziness. The time of day when I go pick up Bennett from school finally arrived. As I'm driving in the sleet on the horribly, icy roads, my windshield wiper on the driver's side flies off. Yes. It flies off. But instead of being flung onto a passing car, it somehow comes back and hits my windshield. At first I thought a bird hit my car. But seeing that birds don't fly in sleet, I had to reassess the situation. Then I noticed that my windshield was getting very blurry. That's when it dawned on me that my windshield wiper hit me. I drove as far as I could and pulled onto a side street and got out to check the damage.
Mind you, I totally wasn't dressed for problem solving in the sleet. I only had on a fleece, no gloves or jacket. Suddenly I have to perform a windshield wiper operation. I was under extreme duress. The sleet is pelting down on me. I have zero clue how you attach the wiper blade to the wiper thingy. I'm desperately praying for wisdom. The school is only 1/2 a mile away from me. I figure I can drive the best I can to the school thru the blurry windshield. I get back in and clumsily, carefully, grope my way to the school on the icy roads. The whole time I'm telling myself, think, think, think, Cori.
Thank God I finally make it to the school. The first thing I do is call Chuck. But I know he's in a meeting and can do nothing for me. I thought maybe he could instruct me in the fine art of how to fix a broken wiper...but I only get his voice mail. Now I really have to think. I get back out of the car with my broken blade and attempt to attach it yet again. I'm not very tall. I have to lean very far onto the car to reach the wiper thingy ma-jig. It's still sleeting. I'm still cold and wet and now my hair is getting all messed up (thankfully I had the foresight to take my glasses off and leave them in the car). By some miracle, I actually attach the two pieces. I heard angels singing.
I get back in the car. I had texted Chuck before getting out to do my little auto repair. This is the exact text: I have a big problem. My windshield wiper flew off and I still have to pick up both boys and its selecting. (Obviously I meant sleeting here, but my phone decided to auto correct me thinking it could not possibly be sleeting in April.) I'm not really sure what I was hoping to accomplish by freaking him out in his meeting, but I just didn't want to go thru all this alone. He responds: Agh!? Exactly like I thought he would. I was quickly able to follow that up with an explanation of my car repair skills and told him not to worry. I can do hard things. It's ok now.
I don't like to do hard things, but it's nice to know I can do them when the challenge presents itself. I preferred to be rescued. Thankfully, I keep a little superhero powers tucked away for just such occasions.
At dinner, while regaling all with my tales of woe, everyone had opinions on how I should have responded to Creepy Guy. Since I'm not one to think of a good line until long after it's needed, I came up with this at dinner time (a full 7 hours too late): I should have turned around, faced him and bluntly asked, "What can I help you for?" (my typical style of getting my words all mixed up) or warned him, "I took kick boxing for 3 months - you don't want to mess with me." or my personal favorite, "watch out Buddy, I have pointy elbows and I will use them to inflict pain on you." My luck, he was probably only trying to let me know I left my lights on in my car or something.
Apr 18, 2013
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