I Must Be A Super Hero By Now

The past week or so has seemed like an eternity to me. After I sat in eleven degree weather for almost an hour in the parking deck I got sick as a dog. I only missed one day of work due to the fact I couldn't even force myself to get out from under the covers of my bed.

Zach and one of his buddies had dropped my broken down car off at a mechanic I used to use and the news I got wasn't too good. He didn't work on foreign cars and didn't feel comfortable doing the repairs but told me the engine didn't sound too good when he finally got it to crank. He told me I needed to take it back to where I had the engine installed and let them fix it. I haven't even had the car two months and have had issues from the jump.

I was majorly depressed. MAJORLY!

I got out my car insurance policy and noticed we had rental. I attempted to rent a car then found out my policy only covered rental if my car had been in an accident. First off I also had towing but the guy they told me to use said he couldn't tow from a parking deck and had to finally rent a come along and have Zach and his buddy tow it home.

Car insurance is a freakin' scam if you ask me.

My mechanic buddy didn't charge me anything to look at my car but at least found out was firing okay and the battery was still good. That was something at least.

My sister has been awesome about loaning me her car to get back and forth to work but I was really tired of putting her out when the problem was mine not hers.

Sometimes when people have to help you out time and time again it's almost depressing.  Instead of feeling helped and grateful I felt helpless and hopeless. I went to bed after scarfing down more meds and hoped the next day would be better.

It wasn't.

I had just woke up when Zach came into the bedroom and said a water pipe in the garage had just busted. He cut the water off at the street just as our garage started to flood.

You have got to abso- freakin'- loutely be kidding me?

He wasn't.

Zach tried to fix it but all we had was duct tape and gorilla glue. Neither worked.

We tried to call my bro in law who fixed a busted pipe in our kitchen last year but  was out of town. I called my sister's husband and he came right over. It only cost twenty bucks to fix but had to let the glue set until noon the next day. I was just so grateful for him fixing it one more day hardly seemed to matter.

You don't realize how dependent you are on running water until it stops running.

Tim took a cold shower the next morning at five thirty. There is no way I could have done that, I chose the much preferred female/ momma method when I got up at seven. I heated three gallons of water I bought at Walmart on the stove and took a sponge bath of sorts and wet my hair. I used a small bottle of water to brush my teeth and Wah La  was ready for work with my semi clean self.

I'm still having car issues, it's been almost three weeks and my car is still in the shop.

Mindlessly scrolling through Facebook one night depressed about not having a ride to work twenty five miles from home simply decided to use social networking for what its intended usage really is.

Networking.

I simply put as my status:   "Anybody from Newnan headed to the airport around noon tomorrow and willing to let me hitch a ride?"

Bingo, less than five minutes later I had a ride picking me up for work the next day.

I  may be having some really bad luck lately but was extremely lucky as a teen and attended a really awesome high school in a really awesome city on the fringes of Atlanta, less than five minutes away.

The above picture is of the old gym which was only used for storage but painted every year by the graduating senior class complete with a huge Wildcat on the roof. The old gym was used when my own father went there in the early forties but was just storage for the county by the seventies. It sat right by the football field and same little cinder block ticket booth my father walked through in the forties followed by his kids in the seventies.

Kinda cool.

This was the football team when my own Diddy attended...

And this was the team when his own three kids attended...

The people who attended Russell High School are a great bunch of folks from a great bunch of East point families.

Less than two minutes after posting on Facebook a classmate who graduated the year before me messaged to say she worked at the airport and would be more than happy to give me a ride.

That my friends, is the Wildcat way!


We still have reunions every year and people from the classes from the fifties to the eighties all come. The last one I attended had over a thousand people. We all still get along and get together pretty often. Going to that high school means just as much to them as it does to me.

Now that's a pretty neat high school.

My friend picked me up the next day right on time and we chatted about old times the entire trip. I had to make her take ten bucks for gas. She refused multiple times and finally just left it in her car as she dropped me off right at the doors of the international terminal where I worked.

Sweet!

Not only that, said she would pick me up when she got off that night and cart me home again.

She's taken me to and from at least three times since and has been a real blessing not to mention load off my mind about how I'd get to work on certain days.

I need to have this tattooed on the back of both my eyelids.

After quite a few hard months of long hours at a totally manual labor position obviously meant for a dude much younger, my husband is moving up in his workplace. Actually he's literally moving.

To Texas, next week.

Here's the thing. When you are Tim's age starting over with a solid company and they ask if you're willing to transfer for a promotion your best bet is to say "Absolutely" and he did.

I need to look back at that half empty half full picture again because Tim leaves for Texas next week in the only running vehicle we own and have been sharing.

I've had to force myself to even get out of bed some days. It's been a mental and emotional struggle for me most days but need to once again remind myself any day you wake up on this side of the dirt is a good one.

Sometimes you have to play the cards dealt and just hope the next hand is better.

I felt like I was slipping into a black hole but after a few good crying sessions and much soul searching realized we weren't slipping as much as gradually gaining ground.

So I've had to bum rides, big deal.

I didn't have breast cancer like a friend of mine recently posted. That's something in my favor and as a bonus now have full medical, dental and vision coverage plus a hefty life insurance policy.

Maybe I need to use that vision insurance first after all.

The slow time has finally ended at work and once again am banking pretty good every shift.

I've forced myself to look at the bright side which isn't easy after these past couple of months but will end up a tiny blip on the radar of life when all is said and done.

Sometimes I come home from work so mentally worn out I go straight to bed. Sometimes I have to watch a funny video to make myself laugh then go straight to bed.

Laughter is what I really enjoy. There is something about hearing a genuine laugh from someone that makes me smile.

Case in point. Yes I'm a huge dog lover but think this is the greatest dog/owner chat EVER.

Then if I'm still feeling down I watch this one.

 If I have beer or two, this red neck woman cracks me up every time. I can tell she's from the south and sometimes wonder if she lives in the county we do.

So I'm plugging along. Tim's plugging along and moving on.

Next week he will be in Texas and I will be here at home. Kinda makes it hard to still share a vehicle. All I can hope for is that after over two weeks maybe, just maybe my car will be ready to drive.

Seems it's not today... actually my good friend picked me up and took me home again today. As ticked as I am about my car at least am equally lucky to have all these people helping me get around.

It's gotten so much better that it's hard to believe we made it through the long dollar drought years.

We're not at this corner anymore, we're standing at the cross roads of a much brighter and exciting future.

This time next week Tim will be driving our lil Ranger to Texas (pretty good pun) to live for a while and I'll stay here in the house working at the airport. We only have a little over two years left on our mortgage and want to slowly fix it up over the next two years and sell it for hopefully a hefty profit. Tim should know by then where he's headed next and I'll be able to join him unless it's a place I don't like (just kidding! kinda)

Heck if we could manage to stay together after the last five years would both be idiots not to hang around for the Golden Years now.

It's gonna be different with him living halfway across the country.

Number one how am I gonna yell at him?

I'm just being funny but not totally. I'm not sure why Tim stays with me. We are like night and day, always have been. That's great when things sail smoothly along and they did for almost two decades.

When the boat you've been sailing smoothly on suddenly hits the storm of the century things can get pretty tense and they did.

Tim internalizes, I blow it out like an over filled CO2 tank.

It can be an ugly battle and once or twice was.

 I think twice out of five years is pretty good odds considering he's married to me and my smarty pants quick witted and overly outspoken self. (that's a nice way of saying I can be a real bee-otch but at least know it)

He's stayed with me, I owe it to HIM to stay with Tim and knowing what a good man he is, lucky for me will.

He probably feels like he's going on vacation.

I'm not easy to live with but have never asked anyone to do anything I wouldn't be willing to and often times have done.

I think we're actually a perfect match. A sometimes dysfunctional but hang in there baby match!

I've been putting it off in my mind that he's really leaving for maybe a year or more in less than a week. We've had so many opportunities offered and simply taken away I learned years ago not to count chickens before they hatch.

Hatch this!

Tim  came home from work tonight with his plane ticket to Texas for Monday at noon.

I have to be at work at one thirty on Monday so we're leaving together at nine thirty. I was given another "Make the Moment" card at work and have an eighteen dollar gift card good for any restaurant in the airport. I'm taking Tim to Ecco for an early lunch so he can see and experience what a great place it is too.

It's happening, it really is. Tim feels great about this new job and said he wished he'd found this company twenty years ago.

I've also got a job I wish I'd found twenty years ago.

I call that PROGRESS in a major way.

Shout out to Tia for getting me on at Ecco and shout out to Vicki for helping Tim have this incredible opportunity.

We're still struggling and will continue to for a while but the thought of actually having our  "Golden Years" is back on the table and wouldn't miss it for all the gold in Flavor Fave's teefus'!

If I had to thank everybody the musicians would drown me out and go to commercial break after about ten minutes but please know I appreciate each and every one of you, your support, prayers and actually think this may be the real deal.

I feel a Happy Dance a poking!

Til next time and won't be as long as the last...COTTON