ADAPTING... hanging on (Part 97a)

The first week of July, to put it bluntly, was a “bear”, both at home and at work. I was somewhat expecting Elle to be difficult but it was a “blindside“ at work. John had put in for vacation and I was prepared for Vi, the female PT, to assist me with the Monday morning Clerk Typist exam. But Vi and her husband had been off on their vacation and, at the last minute, decided to extend. She did call Mrs K but not in time for her to let me know what was happening. I had to be on the road by 8am to have everything set up for the 9am opening of the doors. I waited at the County Center for a few minutes but figured it would be better for me to get to the site and then hope that Vi or someone would show up. The ONLY thing that went well was that I had the fewest applicants I’d ever had since assuming the job. No one from the office ever showed up and I didn’t get home until almost 7pm. As you can imagine I was not in a good mood and that, added to Elle’s state of mind, did not mix well.

Elle’s mood swings seemed to transfer to the kids as well. She was ”short“ with them and they responded by being ”difficult“. By the time I’d get home it was almost chaotic. I bent over backwards to meet her wishes but it didn’t seem (to her) that I was doing enough. My father interjected himself into the situation by calling to tell me I needed to get over to see my grandfather since I hadn’t been to see him or to take him to the hospital for a few weeks. If that wasn’t enough I got a call from the guy in charge of racing at the sailing club to inform me that despite what the printed racing schedule showed we were racing on the 4th of July (Saturday). When I’d asked Norma to sail with me I gave her the schedule which did not include racing on that day so she’d committed to a family event and wasn’t available. It also meant I’d have to tell Elle and I knew that wasn’t going to go over very well. Then, on Thursday, the hospital called to say that the operating room wouldn’t be available until Tuesday. By the end of the week I was going out of my mind. The one thing I was sure of was that I was racing the car Saturday night. I didn’t care what Elle’s frame of mind was. By then I needed to do something that I wanted to do.

Frustrated, I decided that I wouldn’t risk getting Elle any more upset and wouldn’t even bring up the sailing situation. What that meant by not racing was that I was giving up all chance of  winning a seasonal trophy. However, I also decided that I would race on Sunday, regardless.

I dedicated Saturday morning to getting as much done as possible for Elle’s absence. Elle was to be at the hospital the night before the procedure. The ”plan“ was for Elle’s mother to have the kids while she was in the hospital so we set aside the clothes the older girls would need and Elle made up a list of everything the baby would require. Once that was done I headed for my grandfather’s house. As I’d written earlier, my father had decided that my grandfather needed to have someone with him during the day as well as overnight. The mother of one of my grandmother’s nurses (Cammy) had agreed to do it but only weekdays. That meant a rotating group of caregivers covered the weekends. The last few times I’d been over to take my grandfather to the hospital there was a different person each time. On this Saturday there was another new lady. There were two things that caught my attention when introducing myself. The first was that she was, by comparison to the others, younger. The second was that she had a very upbeat personality. During the trip to the hospital and back my grandfather volunteered that he really liked her and wished that she could be his ”regular“. I told him that was out of my control but encouraged him to speak to my father.

By the time I got home it was almost time to get ready for the races. I think that my favorable showing the previous week stirred some increased interest in my efforts by the guys who had, from time to time, helped me out in the pits. Jim, my neighbor who hadn’t been in many weeks, came over as soon as I pulled in my parking space. He’d seen Cal earlier and told me that he had indicated that he’d be going as well. It was nice to hear but I knew I’d be facing a ”cool“ reception once I got inside. Actually, it was ice cold.

If Elle said anything it wasn’t very much. She did let me know that my racing the sailboat on Sunday wasn’t a good idea even though we’d agreed that we would leave the kids off with her mother. I looked at it as a time saver where I’d be racing and she’d be getting the girls settled in. I couldn’t get off work on Monday to do it during the day and since we had to be at the hospital by 7pm there wouldn’t be time to get everything done and her there in time. I’m not sure I wasn’t the one looking most forward to the end of this whole project.

It was pretty unrealistic for me to think I’d be able to replicate my finish from the previous week. The handicapping for starting positions was done based upon the money cumulatively won over the previous three starts. Having done well ($) the previous week I ended up starting more towards the rear and that’s pretty much where I finished. The best part of the night was catching Rick’s sister in a very compromising position in his pick up truck. It was parked right next to my car and when I went to get something from the trunk of my car I saw some movement. She was definitely bare assed and she definitely saw me looking at her. I thought it was pretty funny. I didn’t see who she was with and after the races were over she came over and pretty much pleaded with me not to say anything to Rick (or to Jim who was related to her). I swore to her that I wouldn’t but in my mind I was thinking ”you owe me!“.

To be continued...