“Remoted” – Day 124 (Saturday)

The military precision of the morning transportation maneuvers were executed as planned and a true testament to the logistics lessons learned from Mom. Pre-departure dog feeding, watering, and diapering were conducted, the human's water bottle filled with ice and water, and a call made to Mom that the car would be incoming. At 7:50, before rolling out of the driveway, a call was placed to the dentist office to as recommended in the voice mail from their office yesterday. Just like yesterday, the “office closed” recording was still playing. The road trip began. Whether the dentist appointment held or not didn’t change the fact that the car still needed to be looked at.

Messages on the road.

Somewhere along Route 495 or maybe it was Route 2, the dentist office called, but the phone didn’t ring, just like it hasn't rung for any of the four incoming calls of the past three days. Despite having driven the same route to Mom's for four years, I still use Waze for the traffic, road hazards and "police reported ahead" features.  While consulting the Waze map on the phone propped on the dash, I saw the icons for incoming text messages and missed calls.

Because I was driving, it was a few minutes before I could check the phone. The first missed call was noted at 8:11 and the first text message, time stamped 8:15 was a reminder of my 10:15 appointment. The second text, timestamped 8:28 informed me the crown was delayed at FedEx, would not be in today, and the appointment would need to be rescheduled. It didn’t even surprise me. This is how my life goes.

It served no purpose to play the “dang, I could have slept in or sat around drinking coffee or reading a book or whatever” game. I was already on the road, hurtling towards the day. This is just how the chips fell for the morning.

Upon arrival at Mom’s in Gardner, we had a chance to relax instead of there being a dash to the dentist office in Fitchburg. We had a nice chat and I uninstalled a program Mom wanted off her computer. Then we headed out shopping to alleviate her cabin fever. We learned we really didn’t need anything at the first store. We each had one item in the cart, and upon further consideration, decided it wasn't worth waiting in the checkout line so we put them back. We got English muffins and bread and snacks at the bread thrift store. While loading a cart at store number three, also known as Big Lots, Mom got a call from Stepdad, who was heading out on a half-hour trek of his own to pick up a new alternator. It was not a tricky wire as previously thought. Apparently, the new alternator installed last week is defective (oops, it was a faulty-nator. Ba doom doom.). It didn’t even surprise me. This is how my life goes. I just feel bad for the unsuspecting participants caught in the wake. Sorry Dr. L., sorry Butch.

At my niece's birthday party my sister, the consummate hostess, had an abundance of tacos and veggies and cakes and ice cream. And it was good. It didn’t even surprise me. This is how my life goes.