The Circuitous Path

As I turned onto our street, my eyes were glued to the 100 inch long sofa in the back of the truck. The rope had slipped down to the legs and each small bump was giving me a jump. Suddenly the bump of my life hit and I realized that I had hit a large curb with the van and shot the front tire. I oozed the car over to the curb and got out and walked home. My shoulders slumped and I trudged up the driveway to make my confession to Jody. He didn't say much which made me want to kick myself or put an icepick through my hand, I wasn't sure which. We headed up the street and he looked at the tire. We went back down the street to grab the jack and all of the kids. I looked at the couches I'd just purchased to hopefully net $300 profit. "Well, I wish I hadn't bought those couches" I said. He looked up surprised and asked me why. I rambled on about how if I hadn't bought the couches I wouldn't have popped the tire and blah blah blah. He still didn't say much and was about to go in the house. He paused and looked back at me with a twinkle in his eye and said "well, I don't think we'll be able to salvage the tire!". My eyes almost bugged completely out of my head. "Well, of course not, the side wall is shredded Jody!" He gave a chuckle and said "oh they were just about shot anyway!" And then I really did want to put an icepick through my hand just because I was sure I didn't deserve a husband like that.
I spent the next three days mulling over what we should do. Should we get two new tires, one new tire, four used wheels with tires so we could switch winter tires easier or just used tires in general? On Monday Jody and I hunted through Craigslist and I called every tire dealer in Longmont and Boulder. While on the phone with a tire dealer I realized that the rear tire had a huge bubble and was about to pop. I guess I grazed the curb with it too. UGH. We decided to buy four used tires from a guy down in Centennial for $100. I drove down during rush hour, threw them in the truck and flew up to Erie for Kaitlyn's meet the class party. It was easily 3 hours spent in the car and $20 or more for gas. I got them home and Jody pointed out that one was bald and the others weren't in the greatest shape. I beat myself up about that for awhile and then went to bed. The next day we took the tires over to Discount Tire and I asked a nice guy named Josh to please pick out the four best tires and put them on the van. He went back and forth examining and finally stood in front of me with an apologetic expression. "Ma'am, those tires aren't going to fit your van." All of the air rushed out of me. I said "they're 16s aren't they?" He nodded silently. "My husband is going to KILL me for not double checking the size" I knew it was a lie because Jody is a saint and for some reason he loves me in spite of every idiotic thing I do and he'll still just pull me in for a hug and tell me he loves my legs or that I'm cute in those pants. The nice tire guy said "did you buy these here or did they come on your van?" I said "my husband bought them here" rather miserably and without expectation. He said "can I check the mileage? We might be able to work something out." I figured best case scenario, this was going to be a $10 discount on new tires or something but hey, I wasn't going to dick around anymore, it was time for me to lay down some cold, hard, nonexistent cash. He held the door open for my ragtag crew and I stood at the counter while all three children sat on high stools swiveling themselves around at dizzying speeds and Josh typed and typed. Finally he looked up at me and smiled "Ma'am, I can put two new tires on your van for $48. The room tilted and for a second I swear I was going to hug him... then I briefly considered telling him that I would hug him if I wasn't so sweaty... then I just said "you're kidding me." He shook his head and said "your husband got road hazard and they're fully covered. You just have to pay to renew the hazard and $15 per tire to have them mounted. You think that'll make him happy?" Here he was actually thinking I had a mean husband. LOL! I guess it served me well to make Jody out as a monster. I nodded and blinked. I said, "so are they the same tires?" He said, "well, actually you had 50,000 mile tires and we're going to put 85,000 mile tires on because that's what we have on hand." I thanked him several times and left.
I called the craigslist man in Centennial and he agreed to take the tires back because he had sold them to me as 17s and they were 16s. I just had to drive back to Centennial.
I told Jody later that it seems some people take direct routes to accomplish things and some people like me, consistently take the longest hardest path possible to accomplish basically the same thing. Rather like the process of identifying Jody's cancer and removing it. Did it really need to take 12+ years? Perhaps that's why it's so hard to sell our house. Once we have completed our very long and arduous route, we'll arrive at basically the same conclusion as everyone else. And maybe, if nothing else, we'll appreciate the result more than someone who put their house on the market and sold it in one week. I can't say that I can see a greater benefit from the long hard route, but it's a life. Maybe the lesson is patience. Patience is, after all, a virtue. And I can't think of a single person who's ever said "Jody and Elizabeth are the most patient people I know".

Living in the now.

The other day I was talked into taking all three of my children to the BMX track in the pouring heat (mid 90's) without Jody. When we arrived Nick examined the track with nothing short of delight. He ran to the top of the nearest hill and shouted some gibberish including the words "bike" and "down" while gesturing at me and his strider (which is still too large for him) I smiled and scaled the hill in my Chaco sandals with the strider in hand. When I got to the top and looked down I said "well, buddy, I really don't think we should do this, it looks way too big for you..." He smiled at me again with that winsome grin and said "but zoom zoom Mommy, zoom zoom!" In a moment of foolish parenting I turned to mush and acquiesced. We began hurdling down the hill and I tried to put my sandals into a skid which seemed to work more like a slide and then one of us lost control. We went something over teakettle and well, it was a very dusty and humiliating experience. I still have a wound on my hand that got infected at one point and Nick makes a point of kissing practically every day. What really put me over the top was when Jody's friend Tony casually mentioned to me that maybe we'd be better off on the little kid course on the other side of the BMX track. Yes, that's right. He watched us hurdle to what could have been my child's ultimate demise knowing full well that there was a much wiser alternative a stones throw away. I have not quite forgiven him yet.
We dropped the price on the Kasson house and aren't very hopeful. It's disappointing to see something you loved and invested so much time, money and energy into losing value every time you inhale or exhale but we've reached the point of not caring. No matter how low we have to go, we'll do it now. It took alot of time to get to this point, but we've reached it, so hopefully it'll be a blessing to someone else.
At last checkup a couple of months ago, Jody's cancer appears to be well in check. I suppose that Dr. Grant, who I can't help but have a little crush on, did a fantastic job even if the insurance company disagreed. We've been back and forth with them about four times now. They've haltingly paid a little more each time. Here's hoping that now, a year after Jody's successful surgery we'll at least get that resolved.
Gin will be here in a few days and I truly hope to make the time to blog while she's here and document some more wonderful childhood memories her trips afford our kids. A camping trip to Yellowstone is in the works this time. I can only imagine the great memories for the cousins to share.
Eden and I just watched Cary Grant's last movie "Walk, Don't Run." It was a very good film.
So, after spending three straight days painting at least 14 hours each day, I finished painting my entry and living room. It was grueling and with out sheer determination and little people constantly bragging on my work, I'm sure I would have thrown my paintbrush at a light fixture and gone to the pool but I am SO glad it's done. It's inspired me to do some decorating which I used to love and basically just put on hold after leaving Kasson. When I look at the pictures I took when we were trying to sell that home, I see the care I took with the placement of each item there. When I look around here, I'm starting to see it again.