Sunday night rants

Sleeping In on the Weekend (or not...)

Like CC, I have never been a morning person. It boggles my mind that we set an alarm clock to wake our boys up on weekdays to get up and get ready for school, and LW has to drag them out of bed and it's a daily battle for her to get them dressed and ready for school. WHY WON'T THEY BE THAT WAY ON THE @#$% WEEKEND?!?!?! We turn their alarm clock OFF on the weekend in HOPES that they'll sleep in. Good Heavens, no! They get up at the very butt-crack of dawn WAY before their alarm clock EVER would have gone off!!!

I suppose I wouldn't mind so much if they would just go downstairs and play quietly and not wake us up, but they get into arguments about things and LW and I wake up to ES yelling at YS because YS isn't complying with his orders, or YS crying because ES took something from him.

This morning was a new one on me. I startled-awake at 6 a.m. to the sound of YS making his "shpew! shpew! shpew!" shooting noises. It was still pitch black in our room, and I leaped out of bed to go tell YS to be quiet before he woke up Mommy. I got to their room and saw the boys' door wide open and saw the light from the TV down the stairs, so I assumed they were both downstairs. I went down to tell the boys to be quiet. Arriving in the family room, finding ES in my chair, I lit into him, "What on God's green Earth are you doing up at this hour?..." and was surprised by LW startling awake on the couch at my interrogation of ES. Yes, in my half-awake bolt out of bed, I didn't even realize LW wasn't IN bed because she had already gone down with ES at like 5:30.

I was also surprised not to find YS in the family room. Next thing I knew, he started yelling, "MOOOOOMMY!" from upstairs in his bedroom, so I went back up there. He said he wanted to play Lego Star Wars. I told him fine, go down and play with ES but be quiet. I went back and crawled into bed. Not 30 seconds later, YS starts crying. So I get out of bed and go back over to the boys' room and ask what's wrong. He said his jammies were wet and he wanted to change clothes. I felt his shirt and sure enough, he's sopping wet (he wears a pull-up to bed, but he must've drank a couple'o'gallons of water before he hit the rack). While I start to pull out some clothes to change him into, he pulls up his pajama shirt and starts using it to wipe his face. "Oh, YUCK!" I said, and told him not to do that with the shirt that's sopping wet with pee.

It was a fabulous morning I tell ya. Oh, and did I mention that YS has been sick with a cold this week and now LW and I have it, too. I woke up feeling miserable this morning, and being startled out of my cold-medicine coma by YS's "shpew!" noises just didn't start my day off on the right foot.

I would be remiss if I didn't give a shout-out to LW though. Thank you, Sweetie, for enduring the boys this morning and letting me go back to bed for a while!

Monday morning update:
Saturday: Up at 5:30 a.m.
Sunday: Up at 5:30 a.m.
Monday: In spite of his alarm going off at 6:50, had to be dragged out of bed at 7 a.m.

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Crazy Drivers

I've seen people make a left turn from the right lane.

I've seen people make a right turn from the left lane.

Tonight was a first though. Tonight I was driving to the NEX and waiting at a stop light. I saw the car in the right lane make a left turn at the SAME time as the car in the left turn only lane drive straight through the intersection. I seriously witnessed a miracle tonight. Those cars passed with like millimeters of clearance. Both of those dudes' guardian angels had to have been there exerting every ounce of their Godly might to keep those two cars from colliding.

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They Never Hear Me Coming

I'm discovering one of the drawbacks of driving a hybrid... Stealth. You see, stealth is a good thing if you're a submarine or a NAVY SEAL or an Army Ranger or a Force Recon Marine. At first, I thought it was pretty cool having such a quiet car. Over time though, I am discovering that stealth is not such a desirable attribute for a car.

The first time the effects of driving a quiet car became apparent to me was when I startled one of the gate guards driving on base after dark with no traffic. As usual, I dimmed my headlights as I approach the gate sentries, so there were no bright lights to grab his attention. He never heard me driving up until I said "good evening" to him out my window. I find whenever I go on base during low traffic times, the gate guards comment on how quiet my car is.

The second time the risks of driving a stealthy quiet car dawned on me was just driving around our neighborhood. There are always a lot of kids playing in and around our street, so I have to drive slowly and be alert for little kids darting out in front of me (which they have on a few occasions). As I drive slowly though, the engine shuts down and I'm just creeping along on the battery, so kids that may be just sitting there drawing pictures with chalk on the street or in my driveway don't hear me coming until I honk.

Tonight was the third time this has come to mind as I'm driving through the parking lot and nearly hit this lady that stepped right out in front of me without looking. She didn't even notice me there and proceeded to just walk along right smack down the MIDDLE of the aisle in front of me. I didn't want to honk so close behind her and give her heart failure. As she turned to go toward the store though, all of a sudden in her peripheral vision she caught a glimpse of my car, did a double take, and was startled there was a car driving down the aisle right behind her.

I know they sell those little things you can mount on your bumper to make a whistling noise that scares deer away. Maybe I should look for some kind of noise maker that makes my car sound like a Freightliner truck so people will notice me coming and get the heck out of the way.

Okay, time for me to get off of my soap box, take some more cold medicine, say a prayer of thanks for the many blessings we have and should be grateful for, and go to bed. Good night, all.