MARRIED... trying to adapt (Part 48d)

I don’t know how long it was before I was wakened by feeling the trailer move. I felt it but didn't hear anything. There was only one movement. I didn’t have a flashlight but I walked to the front of the trailer and looked out the window. There was a car right up against the trailer hitch. I didn’t hear Elle come in the room so she scared me when she spoke. She looked out and saw the same as I did. I really didn’t want to go outside but felt I had to to make sure the trailer was OK. It was hard to walk because everything was ice coated. The car was actually backed into the hitch and it appeared to have come from up the hill. I didn’t recognize it so didn’t know what to do about it. It missed the front of my car by less than a foot and based upon the way it was placed against our trailer I was sure that if Josh and Beth had been home that their car would’ve been hit instead of our trailer. I made my way around to the back of the trailer and could see that it was off the blocks but not by much. The kerosene tank was still connected and we had power. There was nothing I could do at that point so went back inside.

All Elle’s anger had abated by then. I was thankful for that. We sat and talked about what had to be done to get our trailer back in place for a while and were just about to go back to bed when there was a knock on the door. It was the owner of the car.

I really didn’t want to go back outside but I knew I didn’t have any choice. When I got to the car I saw Vince and another guy I didn’t recognize. It was almost impossible to stand up but the owner of the car insisted that we try to get it detached from the trailer. A close look showed that when the car hit the tongue of the trailer it bent the jacking bolt thus making it impossible to get the trailer off the back bumper of the car. The car owner was really upset... not that his car had damaged my trailer but by the fact he couldn’t just get in a drive away. By that time it was me who was mad.

By the time I got back inside I was cold all the way through. It was around 3am and Elle was sound asleep. It was only a matter of minutes before one of the alarm clocks that Elle used to wake her so she could use the toilet went off. She hadn’t even noticed that I was gone. It was somewhat funny but up to that time I hadn’t noticed that the trailer was ever so slightly tilted towards the front. It was also about then that I realized that I’d need to get Harry to come to raise the trailer and to put it back in place. With it now being New years day I wondered if he’d be available. I didn’t get much sleep once back in bed.

The ice storm had hit the area where Harry was located harder than our area and when I tried to call him there was no sound on the other end of the line. It was Saturday before I was able to get connected. The best he could offer was possibly on Sunday as there was a lot of damage to his trailer park. The guy who owned the car was a real pain in the ass coing back two or three times telling me I had to do something. The ”something“ I wanted to do was to hit him upside his head with a 2x4. Elle and I had adapted to our ”tilted“ life. We found that by moving the couch so that it paralleled the front of the trailer we could sit and score tests without getting a stiff neck. It really was sort of funny.

Good old Harry showed up around noon on Sunday. He brought some bottle jacks to raise the trailer up off the car. But the jerk who owned it wasn’t around and had left the car locked. I told Harry to just push it out of the way and if he did any damage the guy could sue me. By the time Harry left we were pretty much back to normal. When the guy showed up for his car he had the colossal nerve to come and ask me for my insurance information. I gave him the finger and slammed the door.

The last of the tests were scored at around 2am. When I put them back in the boxes all I could see was $200+. I got to Dr F’s office early on Monday morning even though I knew I wouldn’t get paid for the work for at least two weeks. But it still felt good knowing that I’d accomplished what I’d set out to do. He let me know that he’d already started to interview potential people to be participants in what he’d dubbed the ”educable“ ( I really have no idea how to spell it anymore... it was a word he invented) program. At that time he had six participants, including Joanne. The next step was to get instructors and he told me he was working with the state education department as to certification requirements. To me it was all good news.

As I remember it the week went flying by. I knew the ”flap“over the TV was well past when, as I walked in the door, Elle asked if I noticed the antenna. I hadn’t and immediately stepped back out side to see a completely different one now attached to the rear of the trailer. The owner of the park had stopped by one afternoon and asked if Elle wanted one that a previous renter had left behind. She said ”yes“ and Josh had attached it. She even admitted that it was nice to have it on when she ate dinner. Hmmmmmmm...

As we were getting ready for bed I noticed that Elle didn’t put sanitary pads in her night time ”package“. I asked her why and she said that Beth had told her to use folded washcloths and that way we could save money. I liked that idea but I was intrigued with the fact that it was Beth that had suggested it. I asked and Elle said that one day she’d gone over to Beth’s before going into our trailer and had not known that her ”package“ had leaked. Beth saw it and asked about it. Elle figured that was no need to hide it from her and told her all about her ”problem“. Then Beth, in turn, had told her that since Christmas she’d been having problems at night. She’d gotten some plastic pants and then just put folded washcloths inside and it had seemed to work. I’ll admit that the thought of Beth wetting, even though pregnant, was ”interesting“ to me.

To be continued...