Friday, November 22, 2019
I woke up with a wrench thrown into my plans. I awoke at 6:00 a.m., turned on the television to watch NCIS before I got up, and the news confused me. I had fallen asleep attempting to watch The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, so the early local news was on when I clicked on the television and I was shocked to see my seven-years-old’s, Mika, school was closed. There had been chances of snow forecast for Wednesday, Thursday and today, but I thought the best chances were yesterday and the day before. I was apparently wrong.
I have not been watching the news the past few days because I have been avoiding all the Donald Trump coverage and missed the weather forecast calling for heavy overnight snow (they must have warned us… right?). As I lay in the bed, I was figuring out what I could do with Mika while I was getting my chemotherapy treatment today. Children younger than 16 are not allowed in the infusion clinic. Mika can come with me for blood draws or shots, but if I go to a treatment room, the 16 rule applies.
I had a plan; I would ask my friend who rides the bus home from chemotherapy with me to meet me early to watch Mika. If she was unavailable, I would ask Mika’s friend’s mom to watch Mika for a few hours. I relaxed and flipped the channel to watch NCIS. Imagine my surprise when my significant other, Donald, walked into my room at the end of the show. The worksite he had reported to got shut down for the day, so he was sent home. “Who hoo,” I said. I no longer had to wonder what I would do with Mika; her Dad was home.
Our bus service has been known to start late when the roads are not safe. I kept watching the scroll bar for bus closings as I watched the national news while getting dressed and our transit system was never mentioned. I checked their Facebook, Twitter, website, and called the main phone line for our transit system and did not find any notice the bus would not be running. At 8:25 I started a slow roll down to the bus stop so I could go to the hospital and poison myself.
My older daughter, Megan called in late to her other job so she could make sure I got on the bus safely. Megan followed me in her car to protect me from any cars that might start sliding coming down the hill. We got to the bus stop and waited… and waited. When the bus was ten minutes late, I had Megan call the main bus phone line to see if the message had changed, it had not. Ten minutes later I told her to call again and press the speak to a person option. After pressing a few prompts, she got a recording saying they were closed until 10:00.
I was a little annoyed. Megan called her Dad to let him know I was coming back and would need him to take me to my chemotherapy appointment, so he needed to get Mika ready to go. Megan followed me back up the hill to make sure I made it home, then went in the house to finish getting Mika ready so Donald could load me and my manual wheelchair in the truck. I was only five minutes late for my appointment and now I am toxic, and my steroid high is kicking in; I am starting to get hungry!
My piece of advice to you is to go with the flow. I could have started stressing out at 6:00 this morning. Instead I started blocking obstacles. I need someone to watch Mika. I had two possible options ready before option three literally walked though my door. Bus service was cancelled. Donald was blessed with an unexpected day off. I did find out since I came home that transit did post an update to Twitter stating they were closing until 10:00 three minutes after I checked their feed. It was an adventure rolling down the snowy street to the bus stop and back so, no harm, no foul.
Until next time,
Susanne
Please check out my GoFundMe page.
I woke up with a wrench thrown into my plans. I awoke at 6:00 a.m., turned on the television to watch NCIS before I got up, and the news confused me. I had fallen asleep attempting to watch The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, so the early local news was on when I clicked on the television and I was shocked to see my seven-years-old’s, Mika, school was closed. There had been chances of snow forecast for Wednesday, Thursday and today, but I thought the best chances were yesterday and the day before. I was apparently wrong.
I have not been watching the news the past few days because I have been avoiding all the Donald Trump coverage and missed the weather forecast calling for heavy overnight snow (they must have warned us… right?). As I lay in the bed, I was figuring out what I could do with Mika while I was getting my chemotherapy treatment today. Children younger than 16 are not allowed in the infusion clinic. Mika can come with me for blood draws or shots, but if I go to a treatment room, the 16 rule applies.
I had a plan; I would ask my friend who rides the bus home from chemotherapy with me to meet me early to watch Mika. If she was unavailable, I would ask Mika’s friend’s mom to watch Mika for a few hours. I relaxed and flipped the channel to watch NCIS. Imagine my surprise when my significant other, Donald, walked into my room at the end of the show. The worksite he had reported to got shut down for the day, so he was sent home. “Who hoo,” I said. I no longer had to wonder what I would do with Mika; her Dad was home.
Our bus service has been known to start late when the roads are not safe. I kept watching the scroll bar for bus closings as I watched the national news while getting dressed and our transit system was never mentioned. I checked their Facebook, Twitter, website, and called the main phone line for our transit system and did not find any notice the bus would not be running. At 8:25 I started a slow roll down to the bus stop so I could go to the hospital and poison myself.
My older daughter, Megan called in late to her other job so she could make sure I got on the bus safely. Megan followed me in her car to protect me from any cars that might start sliding coming down the hill. We got to the bus stop and waited… and waited. When the bus was ten minutes late, I had Megan call the main bus phone line to see if the message had changed, it had not. Ten minutes later I told her to call again and press the speak to a person option. After pressing a few prompts, she got a recording saying they were closed until 10:00.
I was a little annoyed. Megan called her Dad to let him know I was coming back and would need him to take me to my chemotherapy appointment, so he needed to get Mika ready to go. Megan followed me back up the hill to make sure I made it home, then went in the house to finish getting Mika ready so Donald could load me and my manual wheelchair in the truck. I was only five minutes late for my appointment and now I am toxic, and my steroid high is kicking in; I am starting to get hungry!
My piece of advice to you is to go with the flow. I could have started stressing out at 6:00 this morning. Instead I started blocking obstacles. I need someone to watch Mika. I had two possible options ready before option three literally walked though my door. Bus service was cancelled. Donald was blessed with an unexpected day off. I did find out since I came home that transit did post an update to Twitter stating they were closing until 10:00 three minutes after I checked their feed. It was an adventure rolling down the snowy street to the bus stop and back so, no harm, no foul.
Until next time,
Susanne
Please check out my GoFundMe page.