Miserable Day of Mishaps and Thanking God

3:00 a.m. yesterday - it was an omen, I'm sure of it. I should have known the day would get worse from that point. I was sleeping soundly when I felt hot air in my face and oddly it smelled of dog breath. Oh yes, Brady dog was with us - how soon I forget. He either wanted to play ball or he needed a potty break. I got up and walked him outside in the slight drizzle and, sure enough, he needed to do both businesses. Did I notice that Brady had a touch of diarrhea? Surely not. I couldn't have that much luck. When we got back inside, he layed down & zonked out on the floor and I was wide awake. I watched stupid shows on TV. Believe me, there's not much on the tube at 3:00 a.m. I fell asleep on the sofa and woke up to pouring rain. As I mentioned in my earlier posting, rain is good but not when you have a dog. The beach towels were still in place on the floor from yesterday so I added another one at the back door plus a small towel to wipe paws. It wasn't until later in the day that I realized how very ominous that 3 am wakeup call was.
My son Mark was returning that day from Canada. His wife Andrea was Matron of Honor at her very best friend's wedding over the past weekend. Mark, Andrea, Andrea's mom and 10-day old Aubrie traveled by car. Andrea and Aubrie decided to stay a week longer to visit friends and relatives. Mark needed to get back to work so he got a one-way flight home. I don't understand why this is, but if you fly to the south from anywhere, you'll always have a layover in Atlanta. No matter that you fly right over the city of your destination - you must go to Atlanta. After said layover, Mark was scheduled to arrive in Charlotte at 4:00 p.m. I had intended to pick him up, but my back still hurts. Dear Tom took a half day from work to drive to Charlotte - in the wonderful rainy weather. I was concerned that storms may delay Mark from landing in Atlanta and/or Charlotte. Mark called me at 2:30 and said the weather in Atlanta was good and all flights were on schedule. I called Tom who was on his way to Charlotte & told him the news.
Poor Brady. He really did have diarrhea. Every time I took him out (in the rain, of course), he had loose stools. I didn't feed him anything and only gave him water hoping it would pass (pun intended).
3:50 p.m. - Mark called from his seat in the airplane and said the pilot just announced that there was a delay - a problem with air traffic control and they could not take off. As a matter of fact it might be 3 hours before they could leave b/c there were 200 planes before them. WHAT? That didn't make sense. While I was talking with Mark, I turned to CNN and Fox News. I hated to tell Mark but there was a nationwide air traffic control failure and all flights were halted affecting thousands across the country. Wow . . . Houston, we have a problem! When I told Mark that little piece of information, he said, "Well, I'm gonna be the first one off this plane and I'm getting a rental car". I told him to call when he was on the way.
3:55 p.m. - I called Tom, who was sitting in the Charlotte airport waiting on Mark. Oops. Tom thought I'd lost my mind b/c he said, "Well, the board says Mark's flight will be 45 minutes late." Then I told him about the CNN and Fox news story. Poor Tom sheepishly said, "Well, I guess I'll just come home."
4:00 p.m. -Marks called and there were no rental cars. I told him to sit patiently and I'd do some thinking. I had relatives in Atlanta or I could drive to get him. What to do? I prayed and waited for an answer.
4:05 p.m. - Mark called and said he'd met two people who were trying to get to Asheville. They were renting a 12 passenger van and they'd drive him to Greenville. How cool is that? Three complete strangers who became friends during a rainy, stormy drive from Atlanta to Greenville. Thank you, Lord, for providing the transportation. Meanwhile, back in Simpleville, we're in a tornado warning. Tornadoes were seen in Clemson and Mauldin. Abby, Matt & Adger were here for supper. My sweet daughter has a true phobia of storms, especially tornadoes. She even had a dream about a tornado 2 days earlier. We discussed the best place in our house for safety. Unfortunately, four adults cannot fit in the small closet that in the center of the house. Hmmmmmmmmm. What to do. Just then the phone rang and my friend Elizabeth offered her basement as a refuge. Didn't take us long to give thumbs up on that idea! When we were safely in her basement, Abby breathed regularly and I no longer worried about early delivery of my second granddaughter.
6:30 p.m. It seemed the storm passed us without any tornado. Tom called and was getting off I-85 and headed to our friends house. Thank you, Lord, for his safe travel. All 7 of us had a Tornado Pizza Party. It was really fun. We headed home to wait for Mark's call.
7:00 p.m. Mark called and they were crossing the state border and would be at our meeting point within the hour. Of course, this is also about the time more bad weather was entering the area. Tornadoes were spotted in a small city south of us and possibly heading our way. Tom handed me a wad of $120 to give Mark's new friend to help pay for the rental van and gas. We know Mark well enough to know he doesn't carry that kind of money. We were driving in Tom's big truck. To get inside, especially when I have back problems, I had to use a handle to pull myself up and into the truck. The handle is located on the inside top of the truck. I pulled myself up and then I let out a slight scream. Somehow, my hair (my very short hair) got caught in that stupid handle and pulled out a huge plug of my hair! I asked Tom if we could sue Toyota. No response from the driver. So we headed out to drive in the lovely torrential rain to get our little boy.
7:45 p.m. Here came a big white van. So funny to see three people in this huge van! As we stood outside under umbrella amid the pouring rain, Tom & I tried to persuade this man to let us pay money for the van and gas. He absolutely refused any money. He said that Mark was a new dad and he wouldn't take a penny from us. Thank you, God, once again for taking care of Mark and supplying him with his needs. This man is Mark's Travel Angel.
We were at a gas station/Subway shop so we took him inside to treat him to a sandwich. I pulled out my wallet and told him to order. After a few minutes, Mark says, "What's that on the floor?" It was the wad of money Tom had given me! Again, thank you, God, for taking care of ME!
8:15 p.m. The Shaggy Dog, Brady, is so very excited to see his daddy again. They played and played for several minutes. I warned Mark of Brady's intestinal issues and he said he thought Brady had medicine for that at his house. So Tom left to drive them home.
9:30 p.m. I was in bed on a heating pad and Tom walked in and said,"Come to the dining room". I walked in and found eight piles of diarrhea dog poo. Yuck. Poor Brady. Poor Tom. At 10pm he was using our carpet cleaner trying to get up the mess. When he finally sat down at 10:30ish, I realized what a long, tiring day he'd had.
This was indeed a miserable day of mishaps. But, God is good. He allowed everyone to travel safely. I'm also thankful that I recently bought a carpet cleaner.