VETERANS DAY POST-OP

For Veterans Day, I do most of my honoring activities the day before via the school.  There's an assembly, class activities, and a tie-in to a new unit on Chiam Potok and a short story he wrote about a Vietnam vet's impact on an injured boy.

My plan for Veteran's Day is to stay home, get some long-overdue cleaning done, and maybe read.  That's my plan.

Instead, I am up at 5:00 a.m., as weekday usual, tandem over to the car dealer with my son, drop his car off, take him to work, stop at Dunks for an iced pumpkin coffee, go back to the dealer to explain what needs to be done to the car, head to the grocery store (I prefer early morning shopping when no one is there but me), make a side trip to the bank, stop for gas where I check my recently-flat-slow-leaking front tire for air (still got some), get convinced by the attendants to let them fix the tire even though I have groceries in the back waiting to be put away (they yank out a huge piece of a nail), consult with the dealer mechanics about the costs of the repairs to my son's car, talk to the insurance company to make sure the kiddo is insured to drive my car (just in case we need to tandem to my work in the morning), and get all of the groceries put away ... all of which happens by 10:15 a.m.

I still need to stay close to the phone for when the dealer calls back, and I'm doing the mad-skill texting with my son about the car repairs and the costs (vs. buying another car -- the repairs are like paying sales tax).  I miss a day of creative art with my friend who is hosting an art-themed get-together and she is extremely artistic and talented so I am now sad.  To make myself feel better, the shoe sale on the clearance styles at DSW ends today, and my $10 savings certificate ends this weekend, so I kidnap my pal and we go speed shopping.  I buy a pair of sneakers and a pair of shoes and some socks all for $51, and the whole trip including travel time takes less than seventy minutes.

Then I rush home to do some schoolwork that I brought with me, only I don't want to do the frigging work because I am sick and tired of ruining my life for all the extra work I keep bringing home.  I do laundry instead and wait for the mechanic to call.  After touching base with the mechanic, I go pick up my son at work, and we head toward the car dealer, who should be done with the car in an hour or two.  It has been an ALL DAY job.

We buy some of the greatest subs in the world (anyone near Wilmington -- You HAVE to try the subs at Lucci's Market, especially if you want to get two or three meals out of one) and head over to sit at the car dealer. We are there maybe twenty minutes; not long, really, but long enough to watch some of a heated Family Feud episode.  My son starts gnawing on his chicken salad sub (mine is roast beef).

Finally, at 6:30, I am home.  Thirteen hours after this odyssey starts, I can sit down.  Schoolwork is not getting done; housework is not getting done; but I have managed to accomplish a lot today.  Best of all, I post on social media a "thank you" to relatives who have served or are still serving in the military.  I do manage to make the connection.  And, I am sitting silently at 11:11 this morning.

Veterans, thank you for your service.  Now, if you don't mind, I'm exhausted from my day off, so I'm going to shower and put on my Marines t-shirt and some flannels and call it a Veterans Day wrap.