Not Looking Good

I think my first mistake yesterday was going shopping. Maggie has been dying to use the gift card she got as a Christmas present at Gary's company's Christmas party. Because I had to pick up Andrew from work yesterday, I figured we'd already be out, and in the direction of the Target, so I could let Maggie spend her money.

I hate shopping any time. I hate it more in December.

The store didn't have what she had been longing for, so she browsed dvd's until she found something reasonable. Andrew wanted to hold out for what he really wanted instead of "settling." So we came up with a plan. I would buy something using his gift card, give him the cash, and take him to another store which would be likely to have what he wanted. As we've gotten closer to Christmas, I have been getting a little stressed over the acknowledgment that we can't really do presents this year. So I thought getting one $30 item for the whole family to share and enjoy would put something under the tree to unwrap. Maggie wouldn't go along with the buy-out plan; she had videos she wanted, and she really has a hard time leaving a store with money in her pocket when once she's got it in her mind that she's being permitted to spend.

So we go to the geek store for Andrew to spend his money. Surprisingly, they didn't have the items he was searching for. (But according to Murphy's Law, we're not really surprised, are we?) And of course, they carried the items that Maggie originally had wanted to purchase from Target. So we talked about buying Choice#1 and going back to Target to return Choice#2. But nooooooo, she wants to keep Choice#2 too.

I am not happy.

By now, we had time to make it back to town for chapel, but only if we skipped Aldi and continued to live with no bananas in the house. Okay, we can make it another couple of days without bananas.

So we go home and start the turkey for supper. Two hours later than intended ... because of shopping [ugh]. And then we had the heat turned off.

Of course, it was a cloudy day, and it began snowing.

Shortly after I discover the lukewarm non-roasting turkey, Gary arrives home. Someone promptly tells him about the Christmas present that would've been a surprise only to the daddy. But at least there would've been one person who got to unwrap something and be pleased. Okay, so we knock that plan outta the water.

We're hearing weather predictions that make me skeptical as to whether we will get to see Katie's family this weekend. I haven't been counting on their being able to make it because, after all, it is December in Wisconsin. We're supposed to get 6-12" of wet, heavy snow from middle of the night Thu/Fri until noon Friday. Then we're supposed to get another dump on Sat/Sun. Yesterday's snowfall was forecast at 1-3". We got 4". At least it was light and powdery this time. But so far this winter, we have always gotten the upper limit of what was forecast, or more. So I think we'll spend the whole weekend shoveling.

And then this morning we head off to chapel. The car sounds funny. Must be the bumpy roads because of the snow. But as the sound worsened, I got suspicious. Got out at a stop sign and checked. A flat tire. Not a little flat. Totally flat. The rim was on the ground. Okay, so the girl has to figure out how to change a tire on icy roads when it's 5°. Got that taken care and drove home. Suspicious because of the flat tires from two weeks ago, I checked around. I had changed one front tire on the Mercury; the other front tire was very very low too. Checked the Camry, and one of its front tires is completely flat.

I should be resilient. Other people have dinners ruined. Other people go Christmas shopping. Other people have flat tires. What's the big deal? You fix the problem the best you can. You sigh over the spoiled Christmas surprises and go on. But all I want to do is curl up in the corner and cry.

But
maybe
I should get out the bike-tire pump first,
and fill those car tires

in case I need to run away from home later.