And it's only 2:30 in the afternoon.
When I go to bed at night, I run through in my head what I'm planning to do the next day. That's so while I'm tossing and turning, I have something to fret over. But last night's plan was pretty simple: Get up, go to the gym with Man-squared, come home and spend the rest of the day doing not too much . . . a little laundry, a little cooking, take Beastie-boy for a walk.
All that changed when I got up this morning.
I made my coffee and read my Bible for a while like I usually do. Then I sat down to read my email and saw a message from Best Buy advertising the iPhone 4 for $0. And since Ben has been waiting almost three years to get rid of his Dreaded Droid, I clicked the link. That's where I found out they had the iPhone 4s (the one he wants) for $99. This was the day we'd been waiting for.
I went through the whole buying online process only to be given an error code at the very end. So I changed my POD (plan of the day, for you non-military types).
I went to the gym and did Strive, then headed for Best Buy. To make a long story short, I bought the last 4s they had in the store. Made deposits at the bank, and headed up to where Ben works (which, incidentally, could be any one of four places). Somewhere along the way, I figured out that he wasn't getting my "where are you today?" texts because, Hello? his only activated phone was sitting on the seat next to me. So I crossed my fingers and went to the place I thought was most likely.
I decided on the way that I would cruise through the parking lot to see if his car was there. When I pulled in, I drove down one lane and as I turned to go up the next lane, the transmission in my Honda slipped a little. Can you imagine? And with only 260,000 miles on it! (more on this later)
When I spotted his car, I parked and went inside to find him and give him his present. Met all his co-workers and his boss (in my sweaty gym clothes and no make-up), and we left for lunch and another Best Buy to get his contacts and pictures transferred to the new phone.
We decided on Best Buy first. Went in and they got started, but because the Dreaded Droid is so old, it gave them fits and no one could even tell what model it was, kind of like scientists gathered around a dinosaur bone.
After about 25 minutes, we decided to leave the phones with them and go get lunch, since Ben had to be back at the office by 1 for an important meeting. Went out to the parking lot, got in the car, turned the key.
Nothing.
No click, no sound; only idiot lights on the dashboard, so we knew the battery wasn't dead. Tried it a few more times and finally Ben said, "What's that sound? What's running? Pop the hood." He looked under the hood and figured out the starter was shorting and running continually. This is not good, Mav.
(And here's where his current hero status comes in . . .)
He got the tire iron out of the trunk, banged on the starter a few times, and it stopped. All of this in about 15 seconds. I would have been still standing there trying to figure out what the noise was, if I even heard it at all. I turned the key again and it started right up.
So we went to lunch (I'm really trying to condense this story), came out and (praise be unto God) the car started right away. I was really glad about this, because we were parked right in front of a Starbucks, where all manner of upper-class type people were sitting at outside tables enjoying the lovely weather, and I really didn't want them to be subjected to the sight of us banging our starter with a tire iron.
Went back to Best Buy where I stayed in the running car and Ben ran in for his phones, then headed back to Ben's office so he would be on time for his meeting.
This was the ten-minute interval today in which nothing went wrong.
We pulled in the parking lot at the office and Ben asked me to just drop him off at his car, since his wallet was in there and he needed it. So I pulled up behind his car, we kissed, he thanked me for his new phone, and we made goo-goo eyes for a few seconds. When he got out to walk toward his car, I saw something moving out of the corner of my eye, and before I could reach for the horn, the car next to his backed into me.
I wish I were kidding.
Understand, this man who put his car in reverse and stepped on the gas without ever looking in his mirror or turning his head is a government contractor. He is responsible in some small way for our national defense. Don't you feel safer?
Came home to find Man-squared lying on the couch with strep throat.
I'm hiding in my bathtub for the rest of the day.
Be thankful ~
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