Oh what a day

It started off as any normal Thursday, wake up, get dressed and go to work, get a call from your kid as your driving out of town telling you that she was in "juvie" and is now enjoying a snicker doodle. You know, just another day. But this would not be a normal day. I could tell that trouble was brewing when my super never rings phone rang. It was that distinctive door bell sound that I assigned to Lonna and the home phone so I would know that I could possibly be in trouble. Since I was in the middle of report I knew I could hurry and answer and go back to report, giving me time to figure out what I was in trouble for before calling back. "Hello?" I asked. "The car is making a clicking sound." Lonna told me. Apparently after being incarcerated at the new police station she took Alyssa up to the park to meet with the other referees for the upcoming soccer season. She went on to tell me that the car was making the clicking sound and the key wasn't even in the ignition. She was starting to get a little nervous because she had to get Kelsie to practice by 6:30. Because I didn't know what to tell her I said that I would give her a call back after I finished report, this would also give me time to pull up my vast knowledge of auto mechanics.

After calling back and discussing the best way to get the car to the mechanics, (all while hearing Kelsie in the background asking if the car was going to blow up) I came up with the brilliant idea of calling Joe to ride to the rescue for me and see if he could figure it out because I had exhausted all my knowledge just after I remembered how to check the oil level. They figured they might as well try to jump start it and at least get the car home. I figured it must have worked when she called me from home to tell me that they were safe and she was sending Alyssa on the motor scooter to get Kelsie from practice then they would figure out dinner. Other than knowing I had to deal with this in the morning, my day could now go back to normal.

"Can I just turn everything off and go to bed?" Lonna asked when she called back an hour later. "Umm, okay?" "Why?" I ask tentatively. "Kelsie's scooter now has a hole in the back tire, and since it was too late to cook salmon, Alyssa decided to grill some hot dogs on the grill because she was getting hungry and the grill tried to kill her." "Kill her?" " A big fireball came out and singed her hair. Now she's traumatized and wants to go to Nikki's but I think I was able to trim the worst of it and I think it looks okay." Of course I am too dense to realize what this means at the time. "She has school pictures in the morning." Now it dawns on me. Teenage daughter, Singed hair from demonic gas grill that dad forgot to tell them about the bad ignitor (the eyebrows survived). Yep, I'm glad I'm at work, do I have to go home in the morning? Let's see, things I have to do when I get home. Fix car (turns out it was just the battery), fix scooter (flat tire from letting out all the air trying to connect the pump to the stem, no hole), apologize for demonic grill and assure teenage daughter that her hair really does look good for picture day. Oh yeah, fix demonic grills ignitor. Not too bad of a morning.