Charm Citizen

Car battery – I awoke at 2:30 am not feeling my best due to laryngitis and was surprised to see a text from my neighbor saying that our truck (see earlier post) was parked out front of our house illegally in the fire lane with the hazards on. Then my memory of the the evening before came back and I remembered that our electricity was out due to down fierce storms in the area. Our garage door wasn’t working because it is powered by electricity and so we had to manually enter from the front door with a set of keys when we returned from the pool. We had to carry numerous drenched bags in from work, camp, and the pool and sort through them in the near dark to separate dirty dishes and clothes, towels and clothes for the wash machine or dryer, and put other items where they belongs. John ran around looking for flashlights and candles and forgot that he left the car out front of our townhome on a city street, albeit a rather quiet one, in a fire lane. I was alarmed by the text from my neighbor and I went outside to investigate. The hazards blinked dimly and the doors were unlocked. This is partly because the drivers side lock stopped working recently and we tend to just leave the car unlocked instead of climbing through the passenger side to unlock the driver side door. John’s flip flops and snack bag were also sitting in the front seat. I spied a rare parking spot up the block and tried to start the truck. The battery was dead. I debated letting John sleep peacefully til morning but was annoyed enough to go upstairs and give him a little hell. I felt bad but I also knew I wasn’t going to rest peacefully knowing the car was stranded out front. He was startled but also apologetic. There wasn’t much we could do til morning because we didn’t want to wake up the neighbors jump staring the car. We both eventually fell back asleep and I woke up on the couch a few hours to the sound of him starting the car. I ran out to help him but he said he was all good. He drove the truck around the block a little to recharge the battery. He somehow even found time to run to the grocery store for bananas and strawberries, staples in our house, while I snoozed. I felt bad for giving him a hard time.

Drs office – It seems like we get sick every year right before vacation. Farah woke up with swollen lymph nodes and Loren was complaining about ear pain. John was able to get an appointment with the pediatrician and took the girls to get checked out. Loren has swimmers ear and was prescribed antibiotic ear drops. Farah has swollen lymph nodes and the nurse practitioner said to take a wait and see attitude. Oddly, the same thing happened last year a couple of days before vacation and she had swollen lymph nodes. Hopefully her body clears out whatever is going on like last time. Kendall is still finishing antibiotics from her illness last week so that makes 2 out of 3 kids taking medicine this week.

Ocean city – It took us hours to get out of the house on Friday night and start our journey to Ocean City, MD. That’s probably because Of our insane packing list. It includes all the regular clothing and toiletries but also things like a skateboard, scooter, tons of food, a cat in a cat carrier, guitar, pillows and blankets, electronics and art supplies.

No 5th thing today