Adventures With Ma

It was a freezy cold day as Ma ventured out for the weekly shopping trip.

The weather threatened slightly, forcing her to make the EXECUTIVE decision to leave early.

Despite the inclement forecast, BRAVE Ma also took along her two youngest spawn. It was their turn plus there would be the added advantage of knowing she'd return to an intact house.

It wasn't long before she detected something amiss...

Vibrations! Rumblings of a most unseemly nature emanated from the Green Dragon Lady Lincoln. Fearless Ma stopped the car not once, but THREE TIMES, facing negative wind chills in a effort to check the tires, check for obviously malfunctioning equipment.....check for a SIGN, fer cryin' out loud!

Nothing.

Ma continued on but the noise bothered her. She made the difficult decision to return home and take the evil-smelling-car-of-mouse-scent, instead.

However, upon turning her car around, Ma was amazed to discover the noise was gone ! She made yet another executive decision to turn 'round again, and head back to the happy-land-of-shopping.

Much Goodwill acquirement ensued, including boys' clothing and a VHS of National Velvet.

Onward. The temp on the local bank clock read "Zero degrees." (the expression on the person following Ma was less discernible)
Oh Ma...can you make it? Snow, cold AND potential road rage?

Undauntable Ma presses on, even sharing the road with big...bad....TRUCKS.
And still she falters not.

On to the grocery store, where Ma whipped out her coupon to get 10 pounds of ground beef at $1.69 per pound.
"It looks like a ba-zooka, commented the not-so-innocent Trevorlad. (I am told this "meat perspective" can be blamed on Jason, who early on oriented the younger kids as to the identification of various weapons)

Ma tried to keep a low profile through the rest of the store...not the easiest thing to do when one's 6-year-old is singing ALL THE WORDS to "Winnie the Pooh."

Our Fearless Heroine observed several people glancing her way. They were not the ordinary, "Boy, does she look weird," looks, but rather more of the "Isn't that one boy big enough to be in school?" type.

Finally, one man could contain himself no longer and blurted out, "I just have to ask...did the schools let out early?"

"No," our intrepid almost 50-year-old replied, "We homeschool and we're doing the shopping before the weather gets any worse."

"Oh, well...that's good..." (*insert* "Some of my best friends are homeschoolers...")

Homeward bound at last, Ma carefully drives with one hand and snaps pictures with the other. It appears the snow is beginning to cover parts of the road.


Though normally unperturbed, Ma felt slightly nervous on the gravel road when it became obvious that it was snowing SO HARD, barbecues were literally dropping from the sky.

___________________

In the end, the snow tapered off after I got home, leaving me to wonder if my attempt to beat the storm had been ill-timed.

Things picked up again, later, with the local website stating that the current conditions were rain/snow showers with the temperature holding steady at 5 degrees...I have yet to figure that one out.

But there was more for Ma to deal with...much more. El Husbando had woken up (this assumes sleep, of which there was little) feeling most punk. By evening nastyish GI effects had set in, along with muscle aches, headache and the beginnings of a fever.

Since fever can be a sign of rejection transplant patients are told to keep close tabs on any rise in temperature. Thankfully the fever began to recede but feeling icky didn't, so he consulted with a transplant coordinator up at Mayo. We made plans to visit the local docs on the marrow, and I went over Tuesday supper plans with Melinda.

In the end, Loren is feeling somewhat better and the local appointment was not needed, after all. It gave us a bit of scare, though.

And as an additional part of my mad dash to "do stuff in case I have to take Loren to a gazillion doctors on Tuesday," I was throwing laundry in the washer when this card dropped out of the little boys' basket.
Looks like someone's been doing research for a paper...

So...How do's a worm breeth, anyway?
 

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