Long Stressful Week

This week seemed long. It seems to me like every day was endless.

Once we left the house on Monday morning, we drove over to Grantsville to see our mechanic, but once over there we changed our minds. So we pulled in to the Pilot truckstop and waited for a load. We didn’t wait long either. We were going to be going to New Jersey to pick up a load of appliances and taking them to West Virginia. We have picked up at this place before. Security is a big issue,  and the people aren’t very friendly, but usually a good load. And we were wrong, Pops had some trouble with the guy that loaded us, he didn’t leave enough room for Pops to get our load bars back into the truck. That is what is used to secure the load. So the load needed to be taken off and put back in differently. Well, the shipper was not happy about that, but Pops kept his cool and eventually everything got worked out. So away we went.

We got to our delivery in WV ok and immediately got another load, this time picking up and going to Tennessee. We drove through the beautiful mountains of Tennessee in the morning just after sunrise. The mountains are already very green and daffodils were in bloom and way down in the valleys, the fog laid heavily. It was a beautiful thing to see.  I love seeing the flowers and the buds on the trees and the flowering trees are already blooming too. It was good medicine for my soul.

Later that day I got a phone call from my sister about Dad. He had experienced some kind of a melt down at his personal care home and had to be taken to the pysch ward of the hospital. None of knew for sure  what was going on with him, but he was acting terribly and saying and doing things that were almost unforgivable. He has badly hurt my sister, who is and has been his constant care-giver for the last 10+ years. She was telling me that the hospital can’t find anything really wrong with him. Except he was out of a medication that he had been taking for the last 50 years. Could this have caused all of this? No one is quite sure.

I called him later that evening and he was still talking crazy. I couldn’t believe it was my dad. What on earth? It was a really hard week on all of us in the family, very stressful and unsettling, especially for Amy. What are we going to do now? The personal care home did not want to take him back, his behavior and breakdown had been so bad.  I could hardly focus on my job at all this week. I just couldn’t wrap my head around anything. Thank Goodness Pops is so understanding.

Our next load was another load of appliances, this time picking up at a different place. It was a pretty good size load to and the people there were so very nice. It is honestly true about the southern people being more friendly. We have proved that over and over again. Anyway, while there, Pops was telling them about how often we haul appliances and he was asking them questions. They are all in agreement, at every appliance place we’ve been too that LG appliances are by far the best for the money. Their quality and reliability is better than many name brands that I won’t mention. So if you are looking for an appliance, anything from microwaves to refrigerators to washer/dryers, consider an LG brand for sure.

We had a pick up in North Carolina. It was at a place that had a lot of silo-looking things and a couple of big muddy ponds in the back with things that churned up the water and made it bubble. It was very secure and we had to get security badges and everything. Whoa!

Our load wasn’t ready yet, so we had to wait. Okay, by me I will just sit and read.

I tried to call to talk to my dad again, but he was released from the hospital. He was going back to the personal care home. I don’t know for sure what had transpired, but he was going back there. I don’t know if it’s permanent or temporary, but I’m glad he was going back but at the same time very embarrassed about the whole ordeal. So since I didn’t catch him to talk to him before he left the hospital, I decided to wait a day or two to let him readjust to the home before calling. I talked to my sister and she was going to do the same thing.

Finally our load was ready. We were hauling one big plastic vat of enzymes. We looked it up on the internet. It is an anti-fungal agent for food products. We were taking it to a big name place that makes corn syrup. I always see train tankers hauling their corn syrup. We had to take it to Dayton, Oh.

I always hate leaving the south. It honestly makes me a little sad. This time the further north we got the darker it was becoming. Somewhere above middle West Virginia we ran into rain. It once near Dayton it was pouring. It rained all night long. We parked at a Walmart and when we woke up the fields all around were flooding and the water was really running into storm drains. But at least, it wasn’t cold.

After we got unloaded  we went to the truckstop to wait our layover. I figured we were done for the week and was looking forward to resting and relaxing and cooking. But we started to get load offers, many of them actually. There was 2 loads that kept coming back and an increased rate each time. They must really need these loads covered. One of them was to Laredo, TX and the other was a Sunday load picking up in WV and going to Michigan for Monday morning. The Michigan load is the one that they finally persuaded us to take. We will have to miss church tomorrow unless we can find one that doesn’t start until 11am. But if we are unable to attend, we are planning on using our friend, Chad’s blog as our study and also some materials that Jeff from Wills Mt. has given us.

I have been thinking about my old workplace a lot this week. I don’t know if it is because of hearing about the death of one of the residents, the very bad health of another, or the birthdays of two good fellow workers this week, or just because of what my dad was doing, but I sure miss my friends there. I think about them way more than they will ever know. Between the workers and the residents, I’ll bet not one single day ever goes by without me thinking about that place. I wish things could be good there. I wish the residents wouldn’t get sick or cranky, and I wish the workers would not have to work so hard. It can really be a good place. I do think about them so often.

So now, Pops is sleeping. I have cooked up a few days of food. We have stocked up on drinking water and groceries. I have cleaned as much as I can with the rain outside. And now that all of you are updated I am going to read and relax.

I have the very best friends. I know this because of all of the texts, phone calls, messages on facebook and on email. It is so good to hear from all of you. I miss everyone and am so glad for the technology to be able to hear from you. Please continue to pray for us, pray for my dad, my sister (upcoming surgery,) Melvin (upcoming surgery.)