The fact that I haven't blogged since 2013 is reason enough to blog today. As a matter of fact, I need to blog about the entire year of 2014 - not my best year. But that's for another blog post.
Tom and his sister Joan usually see each other at least 2 times a year, if not more. Well, it's been almost a year since we've all been together (Tom & I and Joan & husband Carey). We decided months ago that this past weekend we would travel to see them no matter what! And it was a weekend for the books!
I had ordered a large bouquet of flowers to take since it had been so long and because Carey had a defibrillator implanted back in February and we had done nothing but call to check on him. Just as we were parking at the florist's and about to begin our journey, Tom received a call from Joan. She had taken Carey to the ER that morning because his defibrillator had "kicked" him in the chest that morning. Doctor wanted him checked out. She said that they may be back home before we arrived, but just in case not, she wanted us to know.
I purchased a larger-than-I-expected bouquet of flowers much like this one:
Tom and I planned ahead and had a sturdy container to put the arrangement in. The first time we made a slight turn, the vase almost fell forward and some water did spill out. As much as I didn't want to, I moved to the back seat and held onto that vase for dear life for 2 1/2 hours! I had shriveled, spastic fingers from holding on so tightly. As we got closer to Joan's house, we called and she said when we arrived at the house, she'd tell us where the hidden key was and how to turn off the alarm. I already had a bad feeling about this . . . . . .
The key. Oh, the key. Joan told us very specifically where the precious key was. Sounded easy enough. Nope. Without giving specifics, it TWEREN'T exactly where she said it was, although she insisted it was. I finally found it 'close' to where she said it was.
Now, the part that scared me. The dreaded alarm system. Everyone's is slightly different for others. This was no exception. She told us where it was and how to input the code. It looked very similar to this one:
Nothing is ever easy if Tom Rucker is involved. I don't know why, but the devil loves to play games with Tom when he does ANYTHING outside of his career work. This day the devil was dancing in hell.
If you have an alarm system, you know that when entering the home, a beep,beep,beep will commence. Then as it gets frighteningly close to sounding the alarm, that beep begins to rapidly go to town!
Having disabled my alarm many times, I took charge while Tom advised me what numbers to input on the keypad. Problem number 1. I COULD NOT FIND THE DADGUM KEYPAD! Tom and I were frantically looking over, under and around the box on the wall and saw NO indications of a cover hiding a keypad. Of course, it was not at all like ours at home. I was swiping, sliding, and almost banging on the box trying to find the keypad. All the time, Joan was on the phone saying to Tom, "It's right there in front of you!" Tom was saying, "No, it's not!" And all of a sudden the slow beep was now a rapid beep. YIKES! Finally, I saw where to pull down a cover hiding the keypad. Just as I began to input the number, well, you know what happened. The MOST horribly loud alarm began to BLARE! I pressed the code numbers, but can't find the OFF button. Joan was saying, "It's there. It's there." Finally, I see a red button and assume it's the off button. It worked - no more alarm. (By the way, Joan has never used that red button!) Then Joan, said, "You better go in the kitchen because the security system will be calling." Then she gave me her security password. Man, oh, man. That's just about what I worried would happen. Nothing is easy if Tom is around.
After unloading our luggage, we both took a pit stop before heading to the hospital. To our surprise, we had NO WATER! Oh, great; who wants to be the one to tell Joan that. But Joan said that there was a water main break and it would probably be fixed by the time we got home that night. (She must not realize that Tom is in this equation.)
We arrived at Emory University Hospital and found Carey looking good, but still with an irregular heartbeat. The doctor said they may try a new med, but Carey needed to stay overnight, and probably could leave Saturday morning. We stayed at the hospital until 7:30pm and had a late supper. Smart Joan had cooked ahead so the dinner meal was quickly prepared. We had water that night.
We get up Saturday morning; again NO WATER. No problem; we are going to the hospital. We arrived at Emory around 9am, expecting Carey to be discharged around 11am. Carey had a good night, but the hours were ticking by with no discharge given. Seems the doctor on call was in emergency surgery and we'd have to wait for his blessing before discharging. Finally, after 5pm the nurse said Carey needed one more EKG just to be sure everything was normal. She quickly came back in and said she needed to take another EKG. We all looked at each other, realizing that the day was taking a different turn. The doctor said his heart was still in "v-tack" (?), which is very, very rapid heartbeat. He ran a test on Carey's defibrillator implant to be sure it was working properly and it was. Carey needed to stay another night. Seems God had a plan with those hours of delay. Glad we weren't home and had to return to the ER! We stayed at the hospital until 6:30pm and learned that all of DeKalb County was on a boiled water alert!
On the way home, Joan bought a couple gallons of water. She said the shelves were empty and she had to buy distilled water. Restaurants throughout the county were closed because of the water problem. When we got to her house, we had water so I was able to take a bath; however, I had to be careful not to swallow any water. Reminded me of our trip to Honduras. And when brushing our teeth, we had to use bottled water (again, Honduras came to mind).
When we woke up Sunday morning Joan was watering her gorgeous backyard filled with flowers and plants. Then Tom took a shower. Shortly afterwards, the water pressure went from slow to nonexistent.
At Emory, the water pressure was also low. There were signs on all water fountains, Do Not Drink The Water. And in the bathrooms there were signs: "Put toilet paper in the trashcan, not in the toilet." Again, a reminder of Honduras.
Tom and I took a walk around the Emory University campus Sunday morning before it became too hot. The campus is absolutely gorgeous! The landscape is immaculate; the buildings (most built in 1916) looked new and were built with so much marble. It would cost millions to build similar buildings in today's economy. The only downside of this walk around campus is that I'm extremely hot-natured. A sweat-hog, if you will, but I prefer "hot momma". It doesn't help that I'm married to someone who abnormally does not sweat. So irritating. My hair was dripping and my cheeks looked like I was on high-dose Prednisone. However, we really did have fun going all over the campus. Next time, I suggest we do this in mid-winter
Despite the water problems, Joan had great food when we ate at her house. Her shrimp salad was to die for!
If we'd stayed another day, Tom and I would have had to shop for underwear because we only brought one pair each. We couldn't wash clothes because of the lack of water/water pressure.
Carey really kept his humor throughout the weekend. He was a trooper.
On the way home, I-85 was awful. Just awful. Traffic was at a crawl several times and for absolutely no reason. Then we came upon a wreck and it was really backed up. It took us much longer to get home.
On a serious note, Carey is still having problems with his heart arrhythmia. Please pray for him. He will probably be in the hospital several more days.
