The short week that turned out long

Monday: power outage for16 hours.  It started sometime Sunday night.  For some reason the alarm on Will's oxygen concentrator didn't go off.  It's supposed to alarm (it is God-awful-loud) when it loses power because, well, you know, it can't deliver oxygen anymore and it needs to notify someone to DO SOMETHING.  Well.  It didn't.  I woke up around 2:30 AM to Liam crying "it's too dark; it's too dark" and was snapped out of my stupor when I realized what had happened.  Tear ass downstairs to switch to the big back up tank.  Do this first.  Then check on Will.  He is fine.  He had woken up and hooked up the small tank I put in his room in case the power ever were to go out while I was at work.  Jeeze.  I don't really need that much adrenaline at 2:30 AM.  It also took forever to calm Liam down.  By Monday at 4:00 PM we finally packed up the dinner we had planned to cook at our house and took it to Will's parents house to cook there.  I remember the guacamole and forget the chips.  Really.  I drive to the store.  Again. 

Tuesday: I was still grumpy from the power outage.  Really. Couldn't. Quite. Shake. Grumpy.  Liam has a fever (this actually started Monday night), runny nose, and is developing a head-turning cough.  He is grumpy too.  We are grumpy together and with each other.  No one is sleeping well. Work is full of drama that I could do without.

Wednesday:  Liam is sick.  Will is getting sick (sore throat).  I have to drive 300 plus miles east of the mountains for work.  Luckily there is no snow.  I am the biggest cry-baby about driving in the snow.  It is embarrassing.  Will's father is traveling and so am I, so there is no obvious person to drive Will to the hospital in case he gets sicker and has to go.  It is good to have extra things to worry about.  

Thursday: Killer-long day of work with a group that takes a lot out of me.  Then, the drive home.  Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful in the mountains.  I start to think I might calm down some and salvage this week after all.  Will doesn't get a fever and decides he has a little cold but really doesn't feel much worse than usual.  Okay.  Liam develops a cough that sounds like he is a seal with TB.  But, we think his fever is gone and he'll be able to go to school on Friday. 

Friday: Liam has a fever and so can't go to school.  He goes to Will's mother (again, she is a saint).  I work.  In-between trying to get just one thing done I have to have 3 separate phone calls with the oxygen delivery people.  Why this is so hard to arrange I will never understand.  The delivery truck finally arrives just as I am running out the door to get to a call with clients.  The O2 man wants to discuss things.  I about lose it.  Then, I drop my laptop face down, like a pancake on the kitchen floor and destroy the screen.  (Data, thank God, turns out to be fine.)  I leave the O2 man to figure things out on his own.  I call the office and explain to the person I work on this project with that I need the call-in number because I can't see my calendar anymore because my laptop is destroyed.  I call our computer person and explain it to her.  Everyone is nice.  Then, I drive up to the city to attend our yearly post-holiday-work-open-house-party-thing because, you know, it is what must be done.  And I have to pick up my new laptop anyway.  Will's mother keeps Liam. 

Today: we sleep in a little.  It is sunny (thank God).  We do Liam's favorite outside chores: pick up dog poop ("There's poop right there Mommy.  Right there.  Right. There.") and fill the bird feeders.   Red winged blackbird in the yard today along with the usual assortment or sparrows, chickadees, and the hummingbirds.  I take Liam to the doctor and am told that his lungs are clear (thank God again), and he might have a sinus-type infection, and antibiotics are probably a good idea, but don't worry.  Liam is so well-behaved at the doctor’s office it is a thing to behold.  After the doctor listens to his lungs, Liam says "thank you." 

So, we’re on an upswing.  I am amazingly behind at work and will have to figure out what to do about that.  Will has pulmonary clinic on Monday, so that will be another day mostly off to drive him there and go to the appointments.  We’ll figure it out.  The days are longer now.  We gain a little bit of light, just a little, every day and it is enough to notice it now. 

As I came over the mountains east to west on Thursday night I chased the setting sun.  It would duck and drop behind the ridges, but then I would come up around a corner and the horizon would open up just a little and there would be the light again, sky pale yellow-green-blue moving up to deeper blue, pale gray clouds reflecting the somewhere sunset with a pink-orange fringe.  I followed it all the way over Blewett Pass, down Snoqualmie, and it wasn’t until I was over Tiger Mountain and back into the city that it got well and truly dark.   Tonight we had alpenglow on Mount Rainier bright enough that Will called it out for me to look at.