Well, do you ever have one of those days?
Well, do you ever have “one of those days”? I know you do. Ray and I had one yesterday.
It all started at 7:50 a.m. when we left home to go to Cookeville (a half hour away) for a couple of errands before our 10:00 a.m. dental appointments—an exam for Ray and a long scheduled, hour-long deep cleaning for me. The first errand went well and solved an issue with our heating. The second was to get a car repair. No problem, they said. It is under warranty. We have the part. It will take a couple of hours. Here’s a loaner car to go to the dentist.
The dentist’s office was very backed up, but we were both ready to start our procedures after a 45-minute delay. So far so good. Ray’s news was good. He went back to pick up the car.
My very sweet hygienist finished me up. When she recommended Ibuprofen, as I was about to leave, I thought, hmmm, I guess this is going to hurt.
When I checked out at the desk, the lady told me that my husband had called. He was delayed because our car had exhibited another problem. I waited in the waiting room, and had the sweetest encounter with an adorable little boy about 4 or 5 years old. When I walked into the waiting room, I waved and said hello. He beamed and came over to give me a chubby high five. His mother was masked so I asked her if it was okay if I gave him one back. She nodded. Oh, he was so adorable. Soon he went to the other side of the large plant beside me, and we played peek-a-boo through the leaves.
When I talked to Ray, I learned that after the car repair was finished and he was driving away, the car began to make a strange putt-putt sound. He returned to the dealership. They told him they would make it their top priority. They gave him the same loaner car, and he came to get me. After he picked me up, I looked in the mirror. There I sat with a swollen face and a scary drooping mouth on one side. Looking on my phone to see if dental numbing could cause a drooping mouth, I read scary stuff and called the dentist’s office. Whew. The lady on the phone reassured me. Sure enough, in an hour and a half or so, my smile came back up on my right side, my numbness continued to wear off, and the pain began. This too will pass. After all, I like milkshakes. I had one for lunch (and later for dinner, too, but let’s save that for the rest of my story).
We waited for our car. So much for being home by 1:00 p.m., as we had expected. The car finally got ready. The extremely kind staff at the dealership had tightened something too tightly while they were putting in the new part. We picked up our grocery order and headed home, arriving about 3:30. When we were almost there, I predicted that we would barely get our groceries put away before our meeting at 4 o’clock.
Ray began to unload. I began to put away. Then suddenly he called out to me to come and help him. While making his last trip to the car, he missed the last step and did a face plant on the pavement! Ray came inside with four scrapes and a swollen lip. He was most concerned about his two front teeth. We called the dentist. No more appointments today. We called the doctor. The doctor’s office said, “Can you be here by 4:40?” The time was 4:03. The drive from our house to the doctor’s office is 36 minutes. I said sure. We arrived at 4:45. Not bad.
The doctor said, “See your dentist.” The dentist’s answering service said, “I’ll call the dentist.” She called back: “Come in tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m. for a CT scan and x-ray. Take some Ibuprofen.”
We headed to the grocery store for Ibuprofen. We went back to the ice cream shop for another milkshake. This time we both needed something soft.
We headed home. Ray had driven all day until his face plant, and I had been driving since then.
Around 7:00 p.m., I pulled up to the stop sign at a country intersection and put on my brake behind the two vehicles in front of me. WHAM! The nice young man in the big truck behind us had had a long day at work and just wasn’t paying attention when he rear-ended us. We pulled over. He came to our window and apologized. His only concern was for us and he expressed his trust in God’s will. The police came. The EMTs came. They checked us out. We came home.
I try to write my posts each day before supper. Needless to say, that didn’t happen yesterday! When I came in, I went into our library and snapped this picture to illustrate our day.
At the top is our decoupaged wedding invitation. Next is the crewel embroidery our friend Peggy Peden gave us when we got married. Below that is the cross stitch Ray asked me to make when our children were little and we were living in Mississippi. The house is not that different from our tiny bungalow there. To its right is my signature: CN ’84.
We’ve been living out “Never a Dull Moment” ever since—together, hand in hand, and blessed. Ray takes care of me. I take care of him. We live this life together, and we are grateful. Through painful dental visits and face plants and car repairs and accidents and days that don’t turn out exactly as we planned, God is good. He is faithful. And Jesus is with us always. As He said:
“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to follow all that I commanded you;
and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:19-20
Oh my goodness, Charlene! What a Jonah day indeed! Days like that are almost comical after a point…sort of a throw-your-hands-in-the-air and wonder what else could go wrong?! Thankful that you have each other, soft yummy milkshakes, and Jesus!
Amen!