Sunday, December 16, 2007

Winter Comes, Bill Leaves

"Baaaaad" weather was predicted for this AM, and it was raining fairly hard when we left at 4:45. Ten miles out of town, the driver's side windshield wiper did a flip in midair and came down like a goose shot out of the air--flap, flap, flap. Bill shut off the wipers, rolled down the window and tried to steer down the highway with the rain pelting in his face. Hasn't FATE had enough FUN with us this year?????

We made it to a gas station with many lights outside, and a sheriff idling in the lot jawing with the attendant. Alas! The days of the "service station" are past us. The cop drove away, the employee went inside out of the rain, and Bill managed to snap the wiper back together again by himself. Back on the road, for whatever more adventure awaited us on the way to the airport.

We made it to the airport on time, just as the rain stopped. All of a sudden, a huge blast of cold wind whipped through the area. All the lights in the parking lot went out, and all the electronic parking meters when down. Yeah! Free Parking!

Bill is now on his way to Japan, a torturous trip that will last 26 hours and deposit him across the globe two days and an afternoon from now. I drove back to Rogersville, went to mom's motel and had a hot bath AND a shower. We also had "complimentary" breakfast there until someone came in shouting "It's SNOWING outside!"

I looked. It was melting as soon as it hit the ground, but I suppose it had come down as snow at some point. These good people in TN have forgotten what snowing really is, but there was a bitter, chill wind brewing, so we came home to the warm, round house (the one with the non-working bathrooms and sinks).

Mom and I will figure out what to do for tonight (I'm thinking of getting out the entrenching tools and pocket TP packs, we weren't Girl Scouts for nothing...) and hopefully we will resolve our plumbing problems tomorrow.

In the meantime, the sky clears, then clouds, then spits cold wet stuff, then clears again. Winter.

1 comment:

terry said...

Geez, Pam. Haven't you been through enough? I do find it somewhat amusing that your household systems go on strike when they know Bill is leaving, It's uncanny, really. I remember how there were always problems at the Palmer Ave. house and you and Bill would be running around like chickens with your heads cut off trying to repair something before he shipped out. I also seem to remember that you'd usually be left to fix whatever it was or clean up the residual mess. I miss ya!