Journal by Sil
February 5, 2000 [8 a.m.]
I've been just too brain-worn to write the last few days. The load at work has been incredible. In addition to trying to rebuild the books, I had to do most of the lay-out Thursday. Sandy's kids were sick, and the car she was using lost its brakes, when she tried to come in and help me get set up.
Yesterday, Priscilla couldn't do the paper delivery. I set out to do that late, as the printer didn't deliver until 11:45. Rush, rush, rush! At 3:35, my van lost its brakes going down a hill toward an intersection and I steered it up a convenient snowbank to stop. I was buckled up properly, but Kate wasn't. However, she is smart about assessing situations and bracing her front feet against the dashboard when it looks like we're going to make a rapid stop. Sadly, there was a traffic light control box in the same snow bank which got nudged slightly. The shop beside the snowbank I landed in turned out to be owned by a lady who has advertised in our paper. Waiting for the police gave us a chance for a good chat. We found we had experiences in common, and she made me a nice cup of coffee to settle me down. I had the shakes after all the excitement. That phenomenon of time slowing and mind racing to deal with the emergency [the adrenalin rush] sure did a number on me.
It took the police 1 & 1/2 hours to get there. (My good neighbor who has a tow-truck was not pleased, either. He said it would be a good time to commit a crime, at shift-change in the police station.) The nice young fellow in a cop suit who showed up was apologetic and said I'd done the right thing to call, even though there was no actual damage. {Apparently, these control boxes are built to take little pushes, such as might be delivered by a snow plow pushing back hard old drifts.}
Kate got to ride home in the van's driver seat, riding backwards. She regards it as her duty to sit in the driver seat when I'm not in the van. She was very pleased to get out when we got here. Bondo took the van down to his repair shop, after dropping us off at the house. It's very handy for me that he lives and works within a mile of my home.
Once I got home, at 5:25 p.m., I called Faith, the volunteer coordinator, to set up a way of getting the rest of the papers delivered. She gave me Neil's phone number, and said she'd do it with me, if he couldn't. Neil has delivered in the past, so he seemed like the most likely candidate. He agreed to do it, starting at 10 o'clock this morning.
8 p.m. update: Neil arrived at 9:30 with his son Bradley and we finished the route by 12:30!!! It's amazing how more hands get work done so quickly. We sorted and counted bundles as Neil drove, then I'd run in with the right amount for each stop. We really had a good time.
I was so well exercised that I took a good long nap this afternoon, after listening to most of "Traviata" on the radio. It was good, but I just couldn't keep my eyes open. When the news came on at 5 p.m., I woke to find 5 cats and my dog patiently gathered around the bed and looking expectant. It was their supper-time. Baggins was cursing down cellar. I gave him some Jersey milk and a dish of "Kat Krunchies" as well as a good head-scratching. Poor old rap-scallion!