Living life to the fullest

Ever feel like you need to go back to bed already at 7 a.m.? Well, I did on Friday. I shared the following with a friend and she encouraged me to blog about it, so.... here it is, Heidi, just for you!

Let's see... got up and hit the floor running to take Tim to the bus. But first I had to iron a shirt -- before coffee, can you imagine? -- because I forgot to do it the night before. Then I discovered I had virtually no food in the house to send to work with him, so he got stuck with a pbj and an orange for b'fast, and instruction to buy his lunch. Then we head out, and I'm passed in a 45 mph construction zone by a piggy backer going quite a bit faster than I am. We hit the 65 mile zone and we both speed up. He's hanging in the middle lane and I'm staying *just* behind him in the right lane (3-lane highway), as he's going just fast enough that I'd have to really speed in order to pass him, so I stay where I am. At this point I'm already thinking about how this guy's annoying me, but I'm in safe enough spot right here, and our exit's coming up soon. (This is en route to the bus, mind you, and I still haven't had coffee yet.)

All of a sudden stuff is flying off his truck from somewhere and hitting the van. Tim's sitting in the passenger seat keeping an eye on the guy ('cause you know he knows big trucks), and he exclaims, "Oh no!" The guy's landing gear under one of the trailers has hit the ground and is throwing sparks. I speed up to fly past him because I don't know what he's going to do at this point and I want to get away from him. The truck driver had seen his dilemma and was quickly attempting to pull over (remember he's in the MIDDLE lane; I'm in the right) but didn't seem to notice that anyone was in the right lane. (I know I wasn't in his blind spot or Tim would've told me, but the driver was probably paying more attention to his truck at that point.)

So I safely hit my exit ramp and get away from the truck, but I'm shaking and now I'm REALLY needing coffee! McD's is conveniently right across the street from the bus stop. Bus isn't there yet, so I pull into McD's and drive around the building, seeing cars in line and wondering if I have time to get my coffee before the bus arrives. I decide I do, as the line appears to be moving quickly. Well apparently, while *I* was in line, somebody inside decided to take a break or something and the line quit moving. The guy who had been at the front (food) window (who I believe is the manager) had moved to back (money) window. I hand him my money, and the female employee decides to come back to the register at that point so the guy hands my money to her to finish the transaction and walks away. But first she had to take another order, with my money still in hand, and then figure out what to do with my money and which order is mine so that she can give me change.

So I finally get past that window, and I pull up to the food window and the manager guy is there but hasn't even poured my coffee yet. And WHY do they have to mark on the cup when they're just going to hand it right to the customer out the window? Anyway, so he's getting my coffee and Tim sees the bus pull up to the intersection to turn in front of McD's and stop across the street. At this point it's 6:13 according to the van clock, which is about 4 minutes fast. Bus arrival is supposed to be 6:12, so we *should* still be okay on time. Well, I'd smelled pancakes way back in the drive-thru and decided I had to have those, too (haven't had pancakes in ages!), but come on, how long do pancakes at McD's have to take, anyway? I get my coffee but then have to WAIT on the pancakes.

Meanwhile, Tim's got his eye on the bus and decides he'd better get out and walk over. He knows the signals and realizes it's going to pull out soon. So he takes off and I'm still waiting on my pancakes. A minute later, Tim comes back. The bus left before he got over there... AND I STILL DON'T HAVE MY PANCAKES!

Finally get my pancakes at 6:18. Tim says "follow the bus". (It had gotten stopped at the red light up the street.) So I do. There's a bus stop right around the next corner, but the bus won't stop if no one's waiting there and we're BEHIND the bus. So the bus drives on and we follow him all the way up to Blue Ridge, and then down Blue Ridge until he finally stops for a passenger at the Red Bridge intersection. (Meanwhile, we'd passed several bus stops but no one was waiting at them, and we're BEHIND the bus.) But at the Red Bridge intersection, someone is standing there so the bus (and I) stop and Tim jumps out and RUNS up to the door, because that would be tragic if it pulled out w/o him again.

So then I turn around and proceed back home. Thankfully no more incidents en route home, and I make it safely with hot coffee and cold pancakes.

Sheesh. 6:50 a.m. and I was tired. I'm sipping coffee but I still haven't eaten my stupid pancakes because I needed to get on the 'puter right away to order Tim's bus pass for August so that it will hopefully get mailed that day so that he'll have it for Monday morning. Whew! That run-on sentence is exactly how I felt that morning! Because ordering his bus pass is another thing I'd forgotten to do earlier this week.

Normally, Tim's employer will give him his monthly bus pass (in lieu of providing parking downtown), but being new on the payroll, it takes several weeks to kick in (good ol' government), so he won't get one from them until the end of August for September.

Speaking of the good ol' government, somebody didn't get his payroll stuff in on time so he didn't get a full paycheck last week. They did give him 60% of his pay because it was their error, but he won't get the rest til next payday. And I'm wondering why, if they can give him 60% of his pay ON payday, why can't they give him the whole thing?

And the government's going to FIX our problems?

I tell ya, the fun around here just never ends!