Save Me, San Francisco (part one)

I'm going to start this tale of adventure from three days ago (Mon night/ Tues morning) when I went to bed at 1am, after watching a couple episodes of Big Bang Theory. At 3am, the dog started barking and would not stop. He always barks when people come into the house, and will usually stop if it's someone he knows, but he will not stop barking if it's a stranger. ('Stranger' here can mean someone he has met before but has forgotten, or someone he simply did not like.)

I got out of bed (wearing a t-shirt and panties- this is important!), and went to check it out. As it turned out, the fan was on in Sadie's room and the curtain was fluttery, and really creeping out Oy. He growled at the curtain, and hid behind my legs, barking.

Yes, I looked behind the curtain outside, and yes, I half expected a person to be out there looking in, and yes, since it's two stories up, I expected it to be a vampire or some hideous creature that could scale walls, and yes, since I went to check out the situation in my underwear, I knew I was going to die.

No one was there.

I turned off the fan and Oy calmed down instantly.

Softly singing "Don't Fear the Reaper"...

Then the door was open and the wind appeared

The candles blew then disappeared

The curtains flew then he appeared, saying don't be afraid

Come on, baby ...and she had no fear

And she ran to him... then they started to fly...

I took Oy outside (yes, outside, I must have a death wish) and was out there, singing, for about ten minutes while he peed, etc. It was in the mid-80's and a beautiful night.

We came back in, and I was now wide awake, so I started making lists... of important numbers, and things the kids would need to remember while we were away, you know, mom stuff. I made coffee, did laundry, Paige got up, went off to school, Ron got up went off to work, and I attempted to go to bed. On my way to bed, walking through a dark room, I struck my shin on a wooden step stool so hard I had to sit down and check if my leg was broken clean off.

Sadie came downstairs and asked if I would be home until noon, because Steph had a family emergency and Sadie had agreed to watch her dog, and I needed to be here to take possession of her (her being the dog, named Harper).

I got an hour of sleep, at the most, and got up to greet the day (and dog). As it happened, Steph came here, slipped the dog into bed with Arden and I'd slept through it!

There was still much to do, so I got to it, mostly laundry, groceries, food prep, packing into the night... and since we had to leave the house at 3:30 am, I just went ahead and stayed up all night. I filled my time by babysitting Sadie's pizza so she could go on to bed, and doing 'weird laundry', the stuff that doesn't ever really make it into a load- the rubber bath mat inside the tub, the big bath rug outside the tub, three throw pillows that have been waiting for months, and some sweaters.

At 3am, Ron woke up, I made him coffee and then jumped in the shower. While in the shower, I shaved in such a hurry that the razor went sideways and I put a 7-inch slice into the inside of my thigh (same leg that hit the step stool), and have been reminded of it every step since then.

By 3:40, we were on the road to the airport. I'd not slept for two nights, but I reasoned that I could sleep on the plane. Until then, I was running on adrenaline... and that nagging feeling one always gets when they leave for a trip that they are forgetting something very important.

(to be continued)