Hydroplaning All The Way Home
I drove to Reno, Nevada this weekend to pick up my niece, Mari, and bring her back to visit in Idaho for a week. The weather was fine for the drive out, but on the way back it got quite interesting! More about that in a minute . . .
I love taking pictures of my sister, Charmaine, as she's taking pictures. :)
On his days off, he likes to go running in the wee hours of the morning before the sun comes up, because it's the coolest hour of the day. Lately it's been getting up to about 110 degrees. Yuck!
I finished painting my kitchen cabinets!! After a month of painting almost every single day, it is finally complete. I even fixed up the problems that I created for myself and now everything is in good shape while I wait for Scott to get home. The only thing left is for him to help me put those flaps on the cupboard doors. (i.e. the gap you see on the doors under the bar)
I sanded the tight area of the upper left door (of the lazy Susan) where it didn't want to move before. Then I primed and painted it.
After applying some wood glue to the hole that I accidentally created last week, I let it dry overnight and then sanded it nice and smooth the next day. Finally, I primed and painted it once again. You can't even tell that it had a hole in it anymore!
It feels SO GOOD to be done with that huge project!! This week is my "sabbatical week" while I focus on spending time with family instead. But after I take Mari back next weekend, I will start painting the walls of the upstairs. It is my goal to create a fluid and warming atmosphere, bringing all the upstairs together with one paint color on the walls.
Last Sunday, Scott's mom, Coy, called to let me know that she had been admitted to the hospital during the night because of a nosebleed that wouldn't stop. It turned out to be a broken blood vessel in her nose and they had a doozy of a time getting it to stop. They shoved some packing way up in her nostril, then as if that weren't enough, they added a device that could be pumped up with air to fill every bit of space in her nose and cause it to double in size. She described it as more painful than anything she had ever experienced before in her life.
The bleeding finally stopped and she was able to go home on Monday morning. But while she was under the doctor's care for the weekend, we were able to feed my father-in-law, Phil, a couple of meals since we live right down the street from the hospital. For one of those occasions, I took the girls in the stroller to deliver a few items to Grandpa. We met him in the hospital lobby because we could not go upstairs.
Since Coy has been home all week, she is doing better, even though her heart is giving her some trouble. She's been having fits of tachycardia and then a couple days of recovery before the next round hits. Bless her heart, she wants to be able to accomplish so many things and this is such an obstacle for her. I am a lot like her because I want to accomplish a million things all the time, motivated by being as productive as possible. But sometimes our body just doesn't want to cooperate. We have to be humble and listen when our body says nope, not today.
As for the girls, they have had a relatively good week adjusting to their dad, Weston, being gone. Some days they have been more emotional, or they both woke up on the wrong side of the bed, which made them cranky for a portion of the day. But thankfully, hugs and love fix everything, and they were able to recover and be more at peace.
I took them on a walk one evening before bed. Abby ran ahead, enjoying being the leader as we played "red light, green light". And Gwen lagged behind, happily switching back and forth between running and walking as slow as molasses. When she ran, she joyfully called out, "My a hairy!" (translation: I'm a fairy!)
On another occasion, we made a cool fort out of a box.
On Thursday afternoon, my niece, Natalie, flew in from Mesa, Arizona and I was able to pick her up and bring her over for dinner before helping her get settled into her apartment up in Rexburg. Amber made chicken tacos with all the fixins, and it was so delicious!
The girls weren't too excited about the chicken tacos, and they really wanted strawberries. I bribed them to eat their tacos by telling them that for every bite of taco, I would give them a bite of strawberry. They happily obliged, and I was able to get them to eat a LOT more of their dinner than they would have done otherwise.
After dinner, Natalie had gifts for the girls. She and her sister, Mandie, had made beautiful little bracelets for them, as well as adding in a giant lollipop. We had just enough time to get a couple pictures together before I needed to drive Natalie up to Rexburg so she could get unpacked.
Once I got home, I got the car all clean and ready for my trip to Reno, and packed a few things before heading to bed.
Friday, I drove 9.5 hours by myself all the way to Reno, where I met up with my sister, Charmaine and her daughter, Mari. I suggested we meet at Idlewild Park, a beautiful park right in the middle of downtown with trails that run along the Truckee River. I picked up some dinner and we ate in the park and went for a relaxing walk.
There were SO MANY DUCKS!! Ducks and geese were everywhere.
We saw geese and their goslings, looking like young and scruffy teenagers.
And we walked along the river and took several pictures.
After being out of the car for a while and getting our fill of nature, we drove our cars just a few miles away to stay with Charmaine's friend and former supervisor, Carolyn and her husband, Rick. They lived in a beautiful canyon subdivision NW of downtown Reno. It was close to the temple, but I couldn't see it, as much as I tried to spy with my little eye. I had to pay attention to the road you know.
We visited late into the evening, and finally it was bedtime. I was so exhausted! I didn't sleep very well the night before and was looking forward to a better night of rest. But it didn't happen. I had another poor night of sleep, even though the bed was super comfortable!
Saturday, Mari and I drove all the way from Reno to Idaho Falls. We did fine until we got close to Elko. From Elko to Wells, it was just sheer torrential rain the entire time! Everyone was driving no more than 40 mph, with wipers on high, and we did our best to navigate through the small river of water on the roadway. It was slow going and taxing, but we looked forward to Wells, Nevada to gas up the car, use the restroom, and get some food. I had found a cute diner the day before and the food was delicious, so we planned to eat there again.
I had Mari record a few seconds of the "typhoon" while I drove.
Click here to watch:
As soon as I pulled into tiny little Wells, though, plans quickly changed. The power was out for the entire town! The gas station we pulled into said we couldn't pump any gas, the diner next door said they couldn't even see past their welcome counter because it was so dark, and that they couldn't sell us anything either. Amid lightning and thunder, continuously loud and heavy rain, and with very full bladders, we decided to rest in the car for a bit and hope that the power would be back on soon.
But after about 10 minutes, I knew we needed to try a little harder to find a solution. So I started calling the places that I could see from where we were parked. One of the places I called was a truck stop across from us. As it turned out, they said they were the only business in Wells that has a generator and can fully function when the power goes out! So off we went across the street.
We were able to put gas in the car, use the restroom, and find some snacks to tide us over. And then we were on our way north to Idaho!
The rain continued, sometimes a medium downpour, and sometimes torrential. Every time a semi-truck passed by us, I literally could not see a thing for about one full second, even with my wipers on high. I just had to trust that I would still be in my lane once the wipers caught up and I could see again. ("Jesus Take the Wheel" - a song by Carrie Underwood - would have been appropriate to listen to yesterday.)
From Twin Falls and all the rest of the way home, I had my wipers on high, and with white-knuckled hands on the steering wheel, I navigated - or basically hydroplaned - all the way home. Every few seconds, I could feel the car either bog down because of the depth of the water on the road, or I would feel the car jerk left or right, or even fish-tail a bit. This was the scenario that I dealt with for about 4 hours. Man I was glad when I finally pulled into the garage.
Me: just before getting into bed after the long day of driving.
I slept like a ROCK the entire night. And even though today has been great, while I'm typing right now it feels like my eyelids weigh entirely too much and I wish it were 9:00 pm instead of 5:00 pm. I need one more solid night of sleep and then I should be fine.
As for Scott: He's been learning how to cook for himself and is doing a great job! He likes to cook chicken pretty much every day, with some green beans or a can of mango or pineapple on the side. He also finally got the box of cookies that I sent off about 2 weeks ago. I was really happy that it arrived safely!
Sunrise over Riyadh:
Next weekend I will be celebrating my 28th wedding anniversary by myself. Though not technically by myself, it will be without my other half and best friend, Scott. We have had some great years together and raised some wonderful children. Recently, I added up all the time we've spent apart because of his military service, and it is more than 6 years in all. Closer to 6.5 years, actually. Even though we've had long separations and other stressful circumstances in our marriage, we always pull through and pull together. I can't think of anyone else I'd rather be with for forever.
Happy Anniversary, love of my life! XOXOXO
Comments
Post a Comment