A New Job!

OK, don't get excited. I am not talking about a job as in new employment. I am talking about Job -- the guy in the Bible who was sorely tested and tested and tested by God but still had faith. (Didn't he? Please tell me it had a happy ending.)

I think after today I would be perfect for the role of Job. Oh maybe not on Broadway, but maybe in a community theatre setting. Or just in my home -- a place I wasn't sure I'd get back to today...

So I had a good productive day at work. Managed to keep the stress level tolerable and even got a good long run in at lunch (4.5 miles but who's counting). My plan was to leave work at 4:30 (I work 7:30-4:30), pick Carter up around 5:30 on my way into the school to drop something off, then we'd go Goodwill hunting for a Halloween costume, then come home. I made Rice Krispy bars with Halloween M&Ms to take to a meeting later, too. That was my plan. But you know what they say about best-laid plans...

Well I made it south of Iola to Scandinavia (about 4 miles) and was heading west when the stupid temperature gauge started going straight up to H. I have been keeping this under control with a little trick the neighbor guy taught me the other night. Put the heat on and crank it. This allegedly draws heat away from the engine and gets the thermostat cooler. Somehow. Not sure. But it has worked so far this week. This afternoon, however, I needed a new bag of tricks.

I ended pulling off onto a side road about 10 minutes into the drive. I let the car cool for about 5 minutes or so. I had a teeny bit of water left in a bottle in my workout bag, so I added that to the coolant reserve thing that normally has water or antifreeze. I didn't know what else to do. I did not have a cell phone on me because I am married to someone who thinks we don't need a cell phone but he has the one we "share" with him ... 2 time zones away. So panic was setting in a little bit. I hit the road again and managed OK getting to Amherst, which is about 10 miles down the road.

I parked at a gas station there and bought another bottle of water just in case. I added a bit more. I ended up driving to Plover -- another 10 miles down the road -- pretty much at 45 mph because the temperature needle seemed to hold steady in the middle at that speed.

When I got to Plover I pulled into the first gas station. "You don't happen to have anything resembling a pay phone here do you?" No, replied Mr. Gas Station Attendant. And no, he had no idea where I could find one. Perhaps at Copps (the grocery store), he said. Mainly I just wanted to call Carter so he wouldn't freak out when I was not there by 5:30 to pick him up (since it was 5:20 already) and to tell him to put the neighbor on "stand by" in case I needed him to come get me.

Well the helpful Customer Service lady at Copps let me use their phone. Only Carter didn't answer because it probably looked foreign to him on the caller I.D. So I left a message and let him know what was up. I went back out to the car and thought, you know, I should just walk over to ShopKo and buy a stinkin' cell phone for the ride home. I'm just that nervous.

So I ask Mr. Electronics Dept if any of the phones can be used right away, as soon as I walk out of the store. Sure, he says, pointing to a few. I snap one up and buy some minutes and take it out to the car. "To activate, please dial this number XXXXX from a different phone." Geez Louise. OK, so I walk back to ShopKo (I'm getting my steps in) and tell the helpful Customer Service lady that I would love to use their phone to call an 800 number to activate the TracFone I just bought at her store. She said yes.

I reach Mr. TracFone and his computerized voice says "This will take about 10 minutes." He was talking about the single human-sided conversation -- not the activation. Just before he hung up, he said it could take 4 hours, yes 4 hours, for the phone to activate and be usable. Are you kidding me? No, not kidding.

So I decide I better just start driving and hope for the best... and pray... and continue to bargain with God to just get me home safely. I did try the phone just outside of Plover. It worked already. Yay. So I reach Carter who says he never got my message and therefore, obviously, has been worried sick. Turns out my sister called at the same time so her message and mine were being left at the same time. Hers registered first and Carter did not realize there was a second oh-so-important message! Sigh...

Anyway, I told him I hoped to be home in 15 minutes and God-willing, with the heat blasting for 15 miles, I was!

So I call my sister back. At this point I am still shaking from the trauma and am telling this already too-long tale of my two-hour trip home from work. Then, and I wish I was kidding, there is the cat, sitting on her stool, puking all over the kitchen floor. Are you freakin' kidding me? This is how the day is going to wrap up?

At this point, Carter hands me a glass of eggnog I so wisely purchased at Wal-Mart last night, I hang up with my sister and give the cat the look to send her running, then clean up cat puke.

When hubby called, he was not attuned to the significance of my stress level. "What's the worst that could have happened? It blows up and dies by the side of the road somewhere. We got our money's worth out of the this car." Yes, that's all true, but I felt like my adventures in babysitting the car all the way home were bad enough.

Of course, God had to keep me off the ledge the whole drive home, too, and I was probably more of a handful.

Maybe I'm not cut out for this Job job just yet!