Friday, February 8, 2013

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HONESTLY, I didn't really mean to, but I may have broken  the law today!
(Be forewarned, I'm giving you, Reader Dear, the very long, possibly excruciatingly detailed version of the back-story!)
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On the very day that I got an important phone call late in the afternoon causing me to skedaddle off to the hospital to greet my newest tiny actor-star-celebrity, I had already gotten an early morning call that prompted me to end up at a hospital!

Seems an elderly aunt of The Yard Man, who lives at a nearby retirement facility, had fallen during the night and was in need of a trip to the E.R.  It wasn't the call I was expecting, but I rapidly pulled on my clothes and was off to "Follow that ambulance!" to the Ephrata Hospital.

It was a pleasant sunny morning, and after spending an hour or so waiting around for completion of the "checking out the patient" ordeal, to be followed by the "checking in the patient" process,  I conveyed to the patient that I'd be back later in the day, and I returned to the sunny morning, and went home to drink coffee and brush my teeth.
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Well, THEN, Reader Dear.  In the ensuing hours I did this and that (the details of which you will not hear, though it's very possible that even without and besides, your eyes are glazing over).  The afternoon shadows were lengthening when I got myself back in the car to return to the hospital.  As I hurried up the road, my phone rang.  "I am interested in your one-bedroom apart-a-ment," said the caller in his heavily-accented voice.  "Do you have any photos?  Could you possibly email me some photos?"

Hmm.  Yes.  I suppose I could, I told him. And he proceeded to give me his email address. "Hold on, hold on!" I said.  "I need to pull off the road."

Dear Reader, it took me some time to do the jotting; I labored with the foreign-sounding name. In an email address, as one knows, there is no room for error!  In addition, he seemed desirous of an oral description (the excruciatingly detailed version, I believe) Ten minutes later, however, I was ready to proceed toward the hospital.  And it was just as I was pulling back into traffic that my phone rang again.  "Hey, Mom," said someone. "My water broke!"

Well, now THAT, Reader Dear, was the message that caused excitement.  It also caused a U-turn!  And it caused pertinent questions to fall by the wayside as I headed in the opposite direction from the Ephrata Hospital.  My daughter's house is a good twelve or thirteen miles from where I'd pulled off the road, so it took me some time to get there, but my heart was pounding.   Also arriving at the home of the expectant mother was the expectant father.  And shortly after, The Yard Man showed up, too, to carry The Little Actor to the home of his grandparents (the ones who live in the very same house in which I live, Reader Dear!)

So there I was. I didn't actually have much to do.  As my daughter calmly collected items and  prepared for the super-colossal, earth-shakingly-momentous event about to occur, I finally thought to ask, "Where are you going for the delivery?"

"Ephrata Hospital," she said.   "I told you that when I called you!"

......

This back-story will have to be continued on a later day, my dear reader.  While it is true that I may have also (ever-so-slightly, of course) broken the law on the day I've just been describing, it was with full knowledge of the (ever-so-slight, of course) infraction.   Today's misstep was taken with utter naivete, and had nothing to do with the speed of my car.

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