Short or Long?

Short version of this post:  Ben's hernia surgery was successful!  The closing on the house went smoothly and we are now living here as renters for the next two weeks.  The iris by the pond are blooming.  Life is full of both boring tasks and amazingly kind people.

Long version:  We had an 3:45 flight out of Denver on Thursday, scheduled to land in BWI at 9:10 in plenty of time to meet Paul's plane from Orlando at 9:55.  But we ended up being delayed because of weather, and didn't land until almost 11:00.  Plan B went into affect; Paul went home with Joel, a classmate, and spent the night.  

It was a bit odd to be in our house as renters instead of owners.  We finally got into bed sometime after midnight and were up by 7:00 to get Ben to the hospital for his hernia surgery.  I kept him company in the pre-op room for a couple of hours, meeting his surgeon, who was quite funny.  He drew a heart and wrote "Love me" on the incision site and told Ben "I'm going to go have a couple of drink to steady my nerves and then we'll get started. "  Ben told me later that he thought he and the doctor had something special going on but was disappointed to find out later that the doctor drew the heart on all his patients.

After Ben went into the operating room I made a quick trip to the grocery store to get some milk in the house since we'd been gone for five days and then went to pick Paul up, wishing the whole time that I could stop and sit down and have a cup of coffee.  I felt very stressed out and way too busy.

After I picked up Paul and got him home I had a scare when I realized that the hospital had called but didn't leave a message.  They'd only do that if they had something so awful that they had to tell you in person, right?  I knew Ben's surgery was very low risk, but you never know with general anesthetic.  But as I began to panic I remembered one of my mantras:  You must face life with optimism.   So I dropped off Paul at home and headed back to the hospital where I found that Ben was fine, just taking longer to recover from the anesthesia than expected.

It was late afternoon before we got home.  After Ben got settled in for a nice long nap I headed out again to fill his prescription for pain medicine and to pick up some dinner; egg drop soup for Ben and Basil Shrimp for me. And then finally I was home and got to settle in with some dinner and watch the conclusion of The Amazing Race with Paul.  *Spoiler Alert*  Paul and I were so excited when Dave and Connor won!  Good guys do sometimes come in first!

Today Ben continued to recover nicely, even going out for a walk with me before dinner.  It was the first real walk I've taken since my leg injury April 12.  The mower had finally been fixed so I mowed down the tall grass along the bumpy edges of our property, marking for Paul where he should mow behind me in the smoother places.   I deleted about 2,000 emails (!) --because I'm paying Google extra money to store all these emails and photos I have --  and went through all the remaining files of papers in the house, sorting them into stacks:  recycle, pack for moving, leave for the new owners, and hand-carry to Boulder.  This took hours and was quite tedious but really had to be done.  I dealt with several logistical problems related to the move, like figuring out what Paul needs to have to start camp two days after we get to Boulder and before the moving van comes, digging out a needed backpack from a packed box and deciding we could probably borrow a sleeping bag from our friends if the moving van doesn't show up in time for the Thursday night camp out.   I texted with Susan in Colorado about some new furniture; would we have trouble getting it into the house?

Oh, the details! This moving stuff isn't for wimps.  It's a lot of plain old hard work mixed with periods of intense excitement (did I tell you the closing went well? Yeah!)

When I needed a break, I took my camera outside and looked for photo opportunities.

Like this one of Paul proudly mowing the yard.  Wish I could capture the way he sings to himself while he mows.  

It's been a busy few days and I'm so glad we have a long weekend ahead.  

But in the middle of all this chaos and busyness I've been struck once again by the power of an act of kindness.  Remember how desperate I was for a little break and a cup of coffee yesterday?  Well, when I got to Joel's house, his mother, Shelby,  immediately invited me in, asking me if I'd like to visit over a cup of coffee!  I had already hugged her in gratitude for taking care of Paul and now I hugged her in gratitude for the friendly and caffeinated pause in a very busy day.  We had such a nice visit together; just the relaxing break I needed.

What is amazing about this is that Joel and Paul aren't even good friends.  I guess they like each other well enough at school but they've never done anything together outside of school.

And Shelby and I aren't good friends, having just chatted a few times together at school.  I had called Shelby a few months ago to ask if she'd help if Plan B went into play, picking her because she lived close to us and seemed nice the few times I had talked with her.

She was nice!  Thank heavens for her! I hope she got some gold stars for being so helpful to us in our crisis.   And I hope I can find away to pass along her kindness.  These little acts can mean so much.