This has been a week! Mom turned 92 on Thursday and I had already accepted that I was only going to be able to see Mom from the deck of the group home and possibly get a glimpse of her cutting her cake and opening her card. But the snowy, icy weather didn’t even allow that, so for the first time in my life I didn’t see Mom on her birthday. I was able to take her balloons, cake and card over the day before her birthday and I’m grateful for that. But because there was absolutely nothing I could do about the situation, I just went with the flow. I loved the pics I was sent and I know Mom had a great birthday. Janet and her family even bought Mom a cool sweatshirt that said “I turned 92 in a quarantine in 2021 and none of you are invited”… that was Priceless!
Like everyone else, I watched in horror the news of the people in Texas literally freezing to death without power and water. I kept asking myself how is this happening in the United States in the same week that we landed a rover on Mars that is sending phenomenal photos back to earth. It was heartbreaking! People wanted to send help, but the news made it clear packages wouldn’t get to their destinations in time to help due to the travel conditions. So we all sat around feeling helpless. Not the time you want to just sit and do nothing. You don’t want to go with the flow, you want the water and power to flow as it should.
I woke up this morning looking forward to spending most of the day with Kendal who I hadn’t seen since the end of December. I got up at 5am to get some work done before Kendal’s arrival at 11am. Two minutes later, the start of my day took a little turn. I went into bathroom and stepped into about 4 inches of water, truly a first. I grabbed my mop and bucket and began bailing out the water while trying to determine where it was coming from. I called Michael and Sons as soon as they opened and was scheduled for an emergency call between 1:30pm and 3pm. Between Bible Study and virtual church I bailed water. When Kim dropped Kendal off, we all bailed water before Kim went out to grab us lunch. After Kendal and I enjoyed our lunch, we bailed water now coming from the shower, under the sink and under the toilet. Kendal bailed outside the bathroom and I did the interior. We then did an Art project and played with LEGO bricks before bailing more water.
We worked out in the gym and then bailed water. We went outside and played frisbee in the cold and then bailed water. At 3pm Michael and Sons advised that they were still coming but had a burst pipe at the job ahead of me and they’d arrive by 6pm. So we watched an animated movie and paused it to bail water.
Even after almost 12 hours of going along with my day and having a ball with my granddaughter, I wasn’t worried in the least about the flowing water. I had heat, and power and our day simply included a minor inconvenience of getting more physical exercise due to mopping than we had planned. Michael and Sons arrived at 5:30pm and determined that it was a clog as opposed to a burst pipe and that they’d have it unclogged in about an hour. It’s now 9pm and it didn’t work out they way we had intended. The clog is somewhere in my yard and they will be back tomorrow with a team of people to resolve it. So there’s more bailing of water in my future until tomorrow morning. So I’ll just continue to go with the flow. But as I type this my Mom is safe, I’m warm, I have electricity and water to drink and I had a glorious time with my granddaughter. Bailing water most of the day wasn’t a lot of fun, but sometimes we just have to literally go with the flow.
Conquering Life; Love and Dialogue with Loretta Veney 