School Daze

School duty. Awake at 530 in the morning to meet the girls at the door and get them ready for school. This would have been fine if I hadn't stayed up all night watching You Tube videos of Jerry Reed, Merle Haggard, Marty Robbins, Clark, and Glen Campbell. I thought I would just watch a couple and drift off to sleep. Maybe wake up well rested when the girls arrived. But that's not how it went down. I enjoyed the videos so much that I found myself still up at two AM, laughing and amazed at the pure genius and talent of these now gone superstars. I mean, come on, Glen Campbell playing the William Tell Overture on an electric guitar OVER HIS HEAD? The first time I saw that video, coincidentally, also in the middle of the night, I literally gasped and sat straight up in my bed, eyes and mouth wide open. I had never seen anything like it. From that moment on I was a diehard GC fan. I don't know how I missed out on his music when I was a kid and it was everywhere. My dad listened to him, I just never really got into it. I was more into Marty Robbins. I loved Marty's Gunfighter Ballads of the Old West. I was never into Roy Clark, or Jerry Reed. I didn't discover JR until Glenn passed. I watched a video of the two of them singing on Glenn's show and fell in love with him. And his singing, too. He reminds me of a cross between Jed Clampet and Toby Keith. 

But I digress. 

So I stayed up way too late, and was so tired when they got here. I met them at the door and the first thing Arya asked was if she could watch TV. The TV is in my bedroom, so with the Mr. sick, that was a no go. She was not a happy camper and told me several times that she was bored. I finally addressed her about it. You know, when you are bored, that is a sign that you need to do something creative. Color, or make something. You don't have to be bored. 

We went downstairs and I made them scrambled eggs with cheese, yogurt, and bacon. We sat together and ate, watched a short little movie on my phone, that both girls, to my great surprise did not like at all. As the closing credits rolled across the screen Claire just looked at me and said Gramma: Do not let me EVER watch that movie again. It's just too sad. 

It had been a little allegory of the gospel, called Forevergreen about a tree who took care of an orphan bear. The orphan bear was happy in the shelter of the tree and the tree provided all it's needs and protected it from harm. But one day a bird dropped a bag of potato chips nearby. The bear ate one of the chips and became junk food crazy. He left the shelter of the tree and went far away, across a great divide to a park full of trash and leftover junk food. 

In his lust for garbage he accidentally starts a forest fire. He can't escape. His arms full of trash and garbage, he reaches for the tree, but the tree cannot reach across the divide without uprooting itself. So the tree lays down across the gulf and reaches for the bear, who has his arms full of trash. He can't take the arm of the tree and be rescued until he makes a choice. The trash or the tree. So he throws the trash away and grabs onto the tree. He makes it safely into the middle of the tree, but the tree begins to break, and to burn, and ultimately to fall. He jumps across the gulf but the tree is gone. He is mournful, but he sees a part of the tree, a small branch left behind. He plants it and it grows. At the end of the movie, the tree, which was dead, is alive! The bear has lots of cubs, and they are living under the shelter of many trees, but especially under the resurrected tree. 

I loved it, but I guess the kids just weren't ready for the intensity. Sigh. I felt bad for a minute or two, but I know they both love Jesus. They don't have to love the movie and I would never make them watch something that is uncomfortable for them. I don't want to be pushy. 

But again, I have digressed. 

I came home after dropping them off and fell asleep. I awoke to a horrible text from the hospice nurse. Firefighters got your father back in his chair. He got out of his chair and tripped and fell. Something has to be done, he cannot be there by himself any longer. I read between the lines that she is getting ready to call Adult Protective Services. There was other stuff in the text, too, but I won't write it down here. 

Of course I panicked. Firefighters? I texted my sister, the one who has been working on getting them into some kind of assisted living. 

Have you talked to the nurse? Yes. Is he OK? Yes. What are we going to do? 

We talked for a little while, but my mind was spinning. I had talked to him the night before. He had sounded good to me. 

And he wasn't hurt. He had just ended up on the floor instead of the chair. The "firefighters" were actually lift and assist people that came and helped him get back up, as my step mom does not have that capability. 

But something has to give. I worried my brain about it all day. I am still worrying my brain about it. 

I got a call later that evening from Katie. Mom...in the most unenthusiastic voice I had ever heard her use...I'm going to have to bring the girls a lot earlier...I have to go into work at 4 AM...Ugh. 

Oh my. So I went to bed and I slept. Well. 

It was actually 445 when they arrived and again, Arya was not happy about the TV. However, apparently, she had really been listening to what I had told her about being bored, yesterday. She just said Well I will go in the office and color. I was also headed to the office, in an effort to stay awake, so we went in together. Claire had climbed in my bed and gone back to sleep. 

It wasn't long before she asked me for some scissors and glue. And then if I had a small box. I found one for her. I read a few pages from the Psalms while she colored and cut and glued. Today was Psalm 23. The Valley of the Shadow of Death. I remembered that when Dad was first diagnosed I had done a deep dive into that Psalm and had discovered to my amazement that the word "evil" as in I will fear no evil, actually in the original text meant malignancy. I had shared that with Dad and told him the Lord was with him, and not to fear. 

How appropriate that Psalm was. 

Turning around I saw that Arya was very intent. She had cut out the images she had colored and was gluing them into the inside of the box. 

It was five o'clock in the morning, and my granddaughter, since she couldn't watch TV, was making her own TV. To say I was astounded would be an understatement. 

With a remote. The "remote" had Netflix, Prime, and Disney channels. The channel we were watching inside her "TV" was the Pokemon channel. With recognizable figures. 

Wow. Just wow! 

She finished and we went downstairs and made pancakes, and hash browns, and biscuits. Claire had water, but Arya went for the pickle juice. She is truly a unique child. And shoutout to her great grandmother, who also drinks pickle juice. 

Tomorrow we have a doc appointment for the Mr. We went to the urgent care yesterday and he was diagnosed with strep. 

But I think he has something secondary going on. He is coughing just like me. I think he has also caught what I had. And what I think I may have had was walking pneumonia. My lungs sounded like Snap, Crackle, and Pop for two weeks and I was miserable. I finally recovered and am back to normal, except for this persistent coughing, which won't leave. The Mr. seems to be following in my footsteps, but at least he now has some antibiotics on board. 

Well, just got the call I will be on school duty in the morning, after all. This time, though, I just have to swing by and get them and go straight to school. 

So after that, the Dr. And after that the airport to pick up Sis. And after that we will see Dad. And after that a hotel for sleep and then Dad again, and then we will be back home. I sense that there will be a lot of Marty Robbins in my immediate driving future.