Finding Direction: The Wind Vane Chronicles

 [Note:  From last post:  First - the pictures are of my mom, then myself at about the same ages.  I just found those the other day and was struck by how much we looked alike (I thought).  Second - I'm suffering terribly still with severe pain in my left shoulder blade from the pinched nerve.  The past two days have been really bad.  I'm still waiting for the doctor's office to get physical therapy set up and traction.  It's terribly frustrating.  I can only be up for short periods of time, like now, but am in constant pain whether lying down or being up.] 

 April 1st – Wednesday Morning

I had set the alarm for 7:30 a.m., but didn’t get up.  Mom came to the door calling my name about 8 a.m. just to make sure I was okay.  She had been up for hours, of course.  She has trouble sleeping and wakes up sometimes as early as 5 a.m. and goes ahead and gets up.

It would be a little after 11:15 a.m. before Laura called us on her way home from her 2 year old Bible class, so Mom & I had time, but worked at a steady pace to finish packing, get the car loaded and make sandwiches.  The plan was for us to go on over to Laura’s house when she called us so that we could meet up as soon as possible and get on the road.

Being the compulsive time keeper I am, I kept checking my watch every two minutes or more to see what time it was and checking our progress against the waning time.  I’m so bad about checking my watch frequently that it bothers me to take it off to get in the shower.  I keep wanting to look at it to see just how much time has actually passed since last I looked.  That’s pretty bad, isn’t it?

It got to be 11:03 a.m. and I just had two sandwiches left to make and would be ready to go.  I got those finished and was packing up the ice chest "just so" to put in the back seat of the car on the floor.  I quickly glanced at my watch and noticed it was a little after 11.  Good, I thought.  Got a few minutes left to finish up.

But, something didn’t seem quite right.  So, I glanced up at Mom’s clock on the wall and saw that it was 11:17 a.m.!  My old watch, which had been on it’s last leg for months and months had finally gone kaput.  Oh, no.  I was horrified.

I called out to Mom and asked her if she had a spare watch.  She did, but it didn’t run either.  I told her I could NOT get by without a watch, even though she assured me she had one, Laura had one and there was one in the car.

 "But, you don’t understand," I said.  "I have to have a watch on my arm.  My own watch."  We decided we’d stop on the trip somewhere along the way to get me one, but I was most uneasy.  While I stewed over that predicament, it dawned on me (and Mom) that it was now 11:45 a.m. and we had not heard a word from Laura, who was supposed to be ready to go by 11:15.  We were both sitting on pins and needles ready to get out of Abilene and she was nowhere to be found, some 30 minutes late.  She didn’t answer her cell phone or home phone, either.

Now, I was really in a stew.  Had I not told Tom before I left home that Laura would be a big hold up?  Had I not said that the hardest part of this trip was going to be getting out of Abilene?  Had I not also predicted that no matter how hard Laura tried to be ready to go on time, after two months of warnings from me, it would be 1 p.m. before we would leave Abilene to get on the road.  It was now 10 minutes to noon and no word.

Just as I was reaching for the phone to try to call her house again, she called.  The mothers were late getting their kids, she’d forgotten her cell phone, she’d had to go by a doctor’s office to get a prescription she had to have before she could leave town.  But, she was home now and ready to go.

 We drove over and I went in while Mom stayed in the car.  [Mini-Digression here:  We had planned this long trip for Mom to be as comfortable as possible.  Keeping with that, I insisted she ride in the front passenger seat, so she could lie back if she wanted.  Whatever.  She insisted she'd ride in back, so as to be a back seat driver and added that she's never been able to sleep in a car, so forget that.  She won, of course, and directed the whole operation from her back seat position.]

I was pleased (and very surprised) to see Laura’s luggage by the front door, ready to go (I thought stupidly).  She ran to her bedroom, saying she would be right back.  I waited.  And waited.  Finally, I went looking for her.  She was in her bathroom packing makeup and stuff.  Then she started putting her contact lenses in.  I told her Mom was in the car.  

She finished that up, finally, and then went swooping around the house grabbing up more stuff by the arm loads.  I started taking her luggage out to the car and loading the trunk.  I asked Mom what time it was, not having a watch of my own, you understand, and she said 12:20 p.m.  I fumed.  Silently.  Laura finally appeared with even more stuff that she jammed into the car in the front passenger seat. 

We were finally ready to go and only a little over an hour late.  12:25 p.m. 

But wait.  Laura had to go by the drugstore to pick up her prescription before we could leave town.  We were supposed to be heading straight east to Interstate 20, but this was north.  But not far, Mom & Laura both said.  Okay, I said.  What else was there to say.  Besides, you know what? 

Once Laura was in the car and we were leaving her driveway, a calm came over me.  This was really happening.  We three were really making this trip together.  We were on our way and it was going to be fun.  What did it really matter what time we left Abilene, anyway?  We could stop when we wanted for the night.  I’d already scouted out every town between Dallas and the state line going east.

I went in the drugstore with Laura to see if they had watches because I was still really antsy not to have mine.  They didn’t.  I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it down the road without a watch or not.

We got back in the car and I told Mom the bad news.  No watches.  Mom says, well, the new big Walmart is just a little ways ahead right on one of the Interstate 20 exits.  Go get you a watch and we can get on the interstate there. 

I ran in Walmart with Laura trailing along needing to use their restroom.  I found the perfect watch (I’d been looking for months and months for one to no avail).  Everything I wanted.  Inexpensive, stretch band on it in fake gold/white gold trim, and most importantly – Indiglo.  When you press in the button, it lights up so you can tell the time at night in bed.

The young Hispanic lady behind the counter took the extra links out for me so that it fit my arm perfectly.  It took her a while, so I told her our whole road trip story.  The man waiting to get help listened, too, and they both wished us well (Laura had come over) as we left.

I got in the car proudly showing Mom & Laura my neat watch which lights up in the dark and then turned the key to start the car to get on the interstate to get on the road out of Abilene for The Great Road Trip of 2009.

As I did so, I looked down at my brand new wonderful watch.  It was exactly 1 p.m.

To Be Continued . . .