Thirty-seven Messages

We went out on my best friend and her husband's boat today.   There is a nice-sized lake about a half-hour from where we live where they keep their boat.   The boat is a newer acquisition, something my best friend wasn't keen on initially, but now that they have it, she really likes.

There was some wakeboarding and inner-tubing done by the children.   The adults talked and the children, their younger ones even, took turns at driving the boat as they've taken and passed the boat safety test for the state.  

We had two dogs on board, both with dog life vests, which I don't think were strictly necessary for saving the lives of the dogs as they can swim, but came in handy when we needed to get them back on board as we could just grab the handle on the back and pull them up.   This was particularly helpful as their puppy was fifteen weeks old and wasn't sure what he was doing.   My dog, not having much in the way of large water experience, also benefited from being hauled back onboard a few times.

Both dogs really liked the boat and wanted to hang out almost over the edge of the sides with the wind blowing their fur around when we were underway.   My son liked the whole day, my daughter only liked part of it.   She wasn't happy and I didn't understand why until I asked her what was up.   She said she was bored.  

I had to look at it from her perspective (or think about it rather) and it made sense when I did so.   She couldn't keep up with the dogs, who moved around a lot, and they didn't really want to be cuddled and held—they were interested in everything they could see.   Everyone else was looking around and talking about what was happening. Or they were getting food—food she didn't know the location of and couldn't see what options were available or how to make sandwiches, etc.

She was dependant on us for almost everything.   I got tired of the constant questioning because I couldn't do anything other than answer her queries and stop her from falling over things that covered every surface and walking area of the very packed boat with the ten of us and two dogs.   In short, sitting still, not talking and listening to the music and hum of the boat just wasn't interesting to her.

She complained, "everyone had had a turn but her" on the inner tube, which wasn't the case as only one wakeboarder and one group of two had been on the innertube, but Matt was giving very long turns and we were well into the second hour at that point.   When she got a turn on the innertube she cheered up.   She liked getting in the lake andswimming too.

We got home in time for my husband to run to the store and prepare chicken parmesan for dinner before his parents arrived.   I cleaned up from the day's trip and noticed the answering machine light was blinking.   I pressed the play button to find out we had thirty-seven unplayed messages.  

Our home phone line is largely useless, but I've had the number since 1990 and the home line was included in the bundle we have so we've kept it.   Most of the calls were hang ups.   There were several "computer tech support" phishing messages and some medical services, "call now before your eligibility expires" as well as one that wanted us to call so we could pay down our school loan account with them unless we wanted to press two to be put on their do not call list as it was, in fact, a random solicitation.  

There was one call letting us know about our pest service that was legitimate with a company I really need to update to my cell phone number.   I deleted all thirty-seven messages.   We really need to get rid of that number, but twenty-nine years with the same phone number has been hard to let go of.

The Big Boy Update:  My son was bouncing around after dinner with my in-laws, not wanting to sit in his seat.   He rather randomly said, "Are you talking to me?  About me being an old man?   Becasue then I could say, 'guys could you be quiet here?  I'm trying to nap.'"

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Did I mention my daughter did have a bladder infection?   The original screen didn't show anything, but they sent it off to see if it would culture anything and it grew ecoli.   Next step is a referral to infectious diseases, which sounds all kinds of awful, but that's the best group to try and determine why she continues to have the infection either come back or is susceptible to them.