The lovely month of May

What joy to have made it to May! I'm actually terrified of feeling or expressing joy right now, because it seems like something terrible is ALWAYS around the corner, but I am happy that it's May. And I say that even though I am sick.

Yes, sick, and apparently it's not covid (I am fully vaccinated now, with 5 days left of the final 2-week waiting period). The boys and I have/had a bad cold. Teen A brought it home with him last weekend. Last Monday I took him to Centaurus High School to get a covid test, and I kept both him and Teen B home from school on Tuesday while we waited for the results. They were negative, so I sent Teen B back to school by himself on Wednesday, while Teen A stayed home and coughed and sneezed. But Wednesday night Teen B complained of a sore throat, so I kept him home Thursday and Friday. Teen A was starting to feel better Thursday and was very much back to normal by Friday, but he still had a bad cough, so I kept him home too.

And of course, on Friday my throat started feeling weird. I had a bad sore throat Saturday, and today seems to be my transition day. My throat is slightly sore, I have a headache, and my voice sounds terrible. I assume that by tomorrow I will be spewing mucus everywhere, and on we'll go. 

I don't mind being sick. It's such a novel experience! None of us has had anything this past year -- all that social distancing and mask wearing and everything being shut down saw to that. I wonder whether our bodies are reacting to these colds more strongly because we're out of practice? I can't remember ever seeing Teen A and Teen B this sick before. Teen A, especially, was wiped out by it, and of course Teen B's not out of the woods yet. I don't know how sick I'm going to be. But it's all right. I think I can do what I need to do (cat care, kid care). We have another quiet week ahead of us, though you never know what will pop up unexpectedly.

Speaking of which, last week was more exciting than I had planned, and not just because of our illnesses. On Monday, when I drove Teen A out to Centaurus (in Lafayette) for his covid test, I parked in the lot where they told us to, turned off the engine -- and then my rearview mirror fell off the windshield. I was so startled it took me a while to understand what had happened. I hadn't even realized that the rearview mirror was attached to the windshield, and I certainly had no idea that it was possible for it to fall off. It was as if my hand had suddenly separated from my arm -- things behaving in ways they shouldn't. I have since learned that other people have had this happen to them, especially in accidents when the impact shakes the mirror loose, but it is not common.

The mirror was still attached to the electrical system of the car by way of a cable (which I had also never noticed before), and so now it was hanging by that cable. I had no idea how I would get home, but I got there -- holding the mirror steady in one hand while I drove slowly and carefully with my left hand. If I didn't hold on to the mirror it would sway around and bang into the windshield. I was sure a police officer would see me and pull me over, but that didn't happen.

Here are some things that did happen, though, over the next few days:

• Called my car repair place and sent them photos of what had happened. They told me they didn't fix that kind of thing and that I should go to Safelite Auto Glass. 
• Tried to book an appointment on the Safelite website, but there were no appointments for this type of thing. On the chat feature, someone called Balthazar told me to drop by and they'd fix it, but he ignored me when I asked what it would cost.
• Decided I couldn't go to Safelite because it was very scary to drive with the mirror hanging down, and what if it turned out they wanted me to make an appointment after all?
  
• Called Rocket Boy and cried to him.
• Called another auto glass place -- the guy said he could fit me in on May 12th (this was April 27th). When I said I didn't want to wait that long, he suggested I buy a repair kit from an auto supply store and do it myself.
  
• Rocket Boy called yet another auto glass place who said I could stop by their shop in Boulder and they'd do it without an appointment, if I got there around 8 am. At 8 am I am normally getting the twins ready to leave the house to go to school and I cannot be at an auto glass place.
• Called that auto glass place myself and they told me they could only fix it at their shop in Littleton (40? miles away), or I could make an appointment and someone would come to my house to fix it on May 6th. Or I could buy a repair kit and do it myself.
• Twins complained because we were running out of food (I had been planning to shop on Monday after Teen A's covid test). In the old days I could have walked to King Soopers, but of course it is closed for the duration following the shooting. Debated whether to take a Lyft to another store, sign up for InstaCart, or ask a neighbor for help.
  
• Appealed to my brother-in-law, Rick, who agreed that I was better off not doing it myself. He had various suggestions over the course of a couple of emails, including calling my insurance company for ideas.
• Cried to Rocket Boy who agreed to call the insurance company for me. He also told me to unplug the mirror so that it wouldn't dangle from the cable anymore.
  
• Tried and failed to unplug the mirror. Watched a video on YouTube and learned that unplugging the mirror is complicated. Decided not to pursue that.
  
• Rocket Boy called the insurance company, the car repair place again, and then the dealer. The dealer said they would set aside a repair kit for me and would do the repairs for the cost of the kit if I got over there right away.
• Taped the mirror to the windshield with a lot of packing tape and drove carefully and nervously to the dealer, using back roads (South Boulder Road to Cherryvale).
• Explained myself to a nice woman at the dealer and she took the car away to fix it while I sat at a picnic table in the shade and read a book.
• The nice woman came back an hour later and told me they couldn't fix it without replacing the entire windshield for $350 (though they did manage to unplug the mirror, so it wasn't hanging down anymore). She suggested I go to Safelite Auto Glass.
• Called Rocket Boy and cried to him some more.
  
• Very very sadly, drove to Safelite Auto Glass, where a nice man called Mike fixed it in ten minutes. For free. No appointment necessary. Perhaps he could see the misery in my eyes.
  
• Went to the 30th Street King Soopers and bought $150 worth of groceries. Drove home and put them away. All better now (this was Thursday).
  

As I have said many times before, I am no good in an emergency. This experience just provided more evidence of that.

So, now it is May. It is rainy today (in Colorado, May showers bring June flowers), and a little while ago we had some significant hail. I just checked my car's windshield, but it is fine. The hail was pea-sized -- we almost never get golf ball-sized hail like other places do. (I'm not complaining!) Not much is in bloom yet, but it'll come (unless we have a stupid snowstorm). This picture shows the lilac bush putting out leaves! It's a late lilac; it won't bloom for a long time yet, but other people's lilacs will be in bloom soon. I'll bet by the time I'm over this cold, there will be lilacs blooming on my walks.

I'll make some plans for May, since it's a new month.

Checking up on Quarterly goals (2nd quarter):

• Read a presidential biography. I've read one biography of Andrew Johnson so far and am about to start another.
  
• Work on a project. No progress yet on the sewing machine (it's still not out of the box). Try again in May.
  

Monthly goals (May):

• Contact with friends and/or family members. In April I wrote to my friend in Los Angeles and interacted with family members about my stupid mirror. So far in May I have had another Zoom call with friends and we're tentatively planning to go to St. Louis at the end of the month and see Rocket Boy. I'm still waiting a bit before I plan a real get-together with a friend.
  
• Book group. I've already finished the book (The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters by Balli Kaur Jaswal). We meet here -- in person, outside -- on the 24th.
  
• Classics Challenge 2021. I read the first two books on my list in April and wrote posts about them. I'll try to read two more in May, to catch up.
  
• Take the twins somewhere fun. Next weekend or the week after might be a nice time to visit the Botanic Garden or the Museum or the Zoo. I'll see.
  
• Donate $$ to some organization. I chose an environmental group in April: $50 to the Desert Tortoise Council. In May I want to donate to a covid relief fund, probably something that would help India. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what to choose.
  
• Work on a goal on my master list. Although we still have health issues to deal with (still haven't decided what to do about Teen B's orthodontia, and I see an endocrinologist on the 18th), I want to focus on something else. There are four weeks left of school and I am going to try to write two days a week (Tuesday and Thursday) for those four weeks.
  

And my weekly/daily plans:

• Mon: Do school with the kids at home. Take Teen B to get a covid test if I have to. Call IT about his Chromebook? Take a short walk if it's not pouring, make banana bread and something easy for dinner.
  
• Tues & Thurs: Get the kids to school. Write for two hours. Do the kids' laundry (Tues). Put out the trash & recycling at night (Thurs). Spend 30 minutes cleaning. Lift weights, take a walk if I'm up to it, do something simple for dinner.
  
• Wed & Fri: Get the kids to school. Work with the sewing machine (take it out of the box, read the first part of the instructions). Call the electrician back about rewiring the kitchen at the rental (Wed). Pay bills, do my laundry (Fri). Spend 30 minutes cleaning. Take a walk, do something simple for dinner.
  
• Sat & Sun: Go for walks, get the kids outside. If not raining, work in the garden. Support group at 1pm, get takeout for dinner (Sat). Blog, make something simple for dinner (Sun). Sunday is Mother's Day, so maybe we'll do something special, but probably nothing more than a trip to a coffee shop or an ice cream place. Or we could go buy some flowers. I'm still waiting for Two Babies to be old enough to take me out to a lovely brunch. Maybe in 10 years? Or 20?
  

It all sounds doable, though who knows what interesting complication will be thrown into the mix. What will break? Who will experience a medical disaster? Since it's impossible to know, I'll try not to think about it. I'll just enjoy the rain and the greening up of all the trees and plants. The nuthatches have not returned, but I hung up my freshly-filled hummingbird feeder yesterday, and I'm eagerly awaiting its first visitors. The kitties will love watching them through the windows, and I'll resume trying to discourage the neighbor cats from going after them.

I like Spring, and Colorado is so stingy with it -- it's late to arrive and then sometimes it seems like it's gone in an instant. In May I always spend some time missing Ann Arbor and how glorious May was there. And then I acknowledge that I live in Colorado now, a lovely place in its own way, and I focus on enjoying what it has to offer.