For those who are following this saga…yesterday, I went right up to the lake to help Dad move things around in his library, and to take Jill back to Manchester airport for her flight home. Normally, Tuesday is a busy day when I get a lot of chores and tasks taken care of, including a trip to the transfer station with the trash and recyclables every other week. But holidays and family visits take precedence.
Jill was a bit out of sorts when I got there, partly because of her cold. Her laryngitis was much better but she was congested and sneezing, and thought she was having allergy attacks on top of everything else. But she was also getting some of the attitude from Dad that I’ve been getting. Jill is a lot pushier than I am about trying to get Dad to do things in certain ways, and he was testy and snappish, especially when we got started moving stuff in the library. Then he was somewhat remorseful when we grumped at him. Jill said, “forget it, I’m over it,” and I told him I’d just blog about him. He thought I was kidding. *evil grin*
I came home with more loot, because Jill always gives me the leftover food that Dad won’t eat on his own–mostly fresh produce. But some relatives in Florida sent Dad a big gift box of Florida tangerines. Dad just won’t eat fruit and vegetables, without a gun to his head, whereas I eat huge amounts of them. So I now have several pounds of gorgeous tangerines in my fridge.
Jill and I got to the airport in plenty of time, but not without a couple of adventures. No sooner had we pulled out of Dad’s driveway, onto the tiny, narrow, heavily wooded East Monomonac Road that runs around the lake, than we were nearly run off the road into the ditch by a huge semi that pulled out of a cutting into the woods. Where the heck that semi was going on that tiny little road beats me, but I was not impressed! It barely skinned past us–and I have a very small car!
Then, we were trundling along Rte. 101 in Wilton, New Hampshire, and all of a sudden, the panel truck ahead of us came to a screeching halt. I had to floor the brake pedal and nearly rear-ended the truck. I’m probably lucky that I didn’t get rear-ended myself! The truck, after a second or two, went on…and immediately it became apparent why it had stopped. A half-downed wire of some kind was drooping across the road, and now that wire was flopped across my windshield!
I just sat there blinking at it–I had no idea what kind of wire it was, phone or electric, it definitely wasn’t cable–and I said to Jill, “what should I do?” Jill, focused on airplanes, said, “Can you go under it?” So I moved ahead cautiously and cleared the wire without difficulty. Jill pulled out her Blackberry and called 911 and reported the wire to the Wilton police. I couldn’t hear their side of the conversation but it sounded like a major “duh” factor was involved on their end. :-p Finally they told Jill they’d send a cruiser out to investigate. The car behind me hadn’t moved, and clearly wasn’t courageous, or foolhardy, enough to try to pass under the wire the way the panel truck and I did.
Jill kept saying “I’ve earned a smooth flight home.” But she was shell-shocked enough by her last three flying experiences to accept my offer to park and go in with her and make sure she got on the flight. She even paid for the parking, which I didn’t ask her to do ($2–this is Manchester. 🙂 ). We had to wait for what seemed to me a ridiculously long time to check her bag, but her flight was listed as on time. I monitored it on the airline’s website when I got home and it actually was almost exactly on schedule. Jill texted me an e-mail from her Blackberry to let me know she was home, too. Whew!
Meanwhile, I got back to Pepperell from Manchester in amazingly good time, fast enough to get the the post office before it closed. When I got home I did all the chores I usually do on Tuesday morning, and hoped I could get to the transfer station today in spite of the snow. And therein lies my next tale…