dodging bullets

el Jefe' drove his Jeep Cherokee with 95,000 miles on it home on Saturday. it is a huge relief to have him home, even if he will be making day trips North a couple days a week. day trips are do-able. he's only a couple hours away. overnights are scarey; the last flight is at 10:00 pm; the first flight is at 6:00 am, and the drive is about 8 hours.

so we dodged that bullet, the "go into labor" bullet when the husband is over 400 miles away.

it's kind of like a saloon gun fight scene from an old spaghetti western. people shooting, and guys rolling under tables and diving over the bar for cover. broken glass and spilled alcohol everywhere, but nobody seems fatally hurt.

bullet No. 2: i did not come home to a dead dog in the past two months. it was a real possibility. how would i explain it to Punkin? how would i move her body, and where would i put it until i could take her to the vet to get her cremated? she's 105; she's incontinent; and her insides are a wreck (judging by the vet bills over the past two months) but she's still kicking. we used to think Abby wouldn't make the trip up North. looks like she's proving us wrong.

bullet No. 2.5: nothing seriously went wrong with the house while el Jefe' was gone. i am quite handy, but am somewhat limited due to my "delicate" condition. (this is all so "knock on wood".) our appliances didn't spontaneously burst into flames, or any of those emergency catastrophes that require immediate attention, muscle, and exorbitant amounts of cash in the past two months.

bullet No. 3: it does not appear my parents will be moving North anytime soon. it is not that i don't want them there; it would be so much easier to hop in the car and help if they need something, instead of flying or driving 8 hours in an emergency. i want them to make an informed choice for the right reasons. they looked at ONE retirement community. my mother actually said the homes were "lovely". they would downsize a bit. but it's a smaller community, and prices have risen drastically in the past 7 years, and it snows up North (duh). Paw Paw said they would only move there if we bought a house in the companion non-age-restricted community, where prices START $200,000 MORE than we are willing to spend. and it's not in an area conducive to either of our commutes.

so we're rolling and diving, and getting dirty and a little soaked in alcohol, but we don't have any mortal wounds. but there is that call i got on Saturday from a brother-in-law about a potential IRS audit ... ping!