Day 256, Year 8: Change of Plans
Date: Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Weather: Another Sunny, Hot Day in the 80’s; Cooler, Lovely Evening
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Educator Harry Wong always says, “If you don’t have a plan, you’re planning to fail.” But I will add to that, “Plans are made to be changed.” Today was one of those days. I’m not sure I remember what my plans were, but whatever, that’s not what I did. Heather called early this morning to tell me that Ollie woke up in the night with a 102+ temperature. I had offered yesterday to come into town to help out during swim lessons this morning, but last night she thought she needed no help. This morning, she thought differently with a sick baby. So Mark drove me to the park and dropped me off so he could go to a dentist appointment and then back to the boat for a business conference call. Heather and Jed dropped Sam and Jonah off at the park and I stayed with them for swim class while Heather and Ollie drove Jed to work. Heather didn’t think Ollie would feel good enough to come down to the pond. She thought he would much rather just sit in his car seat. But when Heather returned to the park, she side swiped one of the heavy duty gate posts at the entrance to the parking area which put a nasty gash in the passenger side door to the van the entire width of the door. This surely was not in her plans for the day. She was obviously shaken but needed to make phone calls to deal with the accident. Ollie’s temperature was actually just a little better and he wanted to go in the water. So I played with Ollie in the water while watching Sam and Jonah. Swim lessons were over by this time, and they were just enjoying the water. Swim lessons have been great for Sam. There are usually only four or five boys in his 9:30 am class, so they get lots of attention. Plus the fact that two of the boys are a little older and Sam loves doing everything they do. So all of a sudden he is like a little fish–swimming and going under water. Jonah had tubes put in his ears in May and he is just not liking the idea of putting his head underwater—so swim progress is a little slower for him this summer. But he’ll get there. All three boys had a lot of fun in the water while poor Heather talked on the phone dealing with the accident. But at least she did get to enjoy a few minutes of beach time before we left. She had planned to bring the boys to Woods Hole for lunch today and to spend the afternoon, but instead we went to her house for lunch. Heather and Ollie desperately needed a little sleep, so I took Sam and Jonah to do some errands and then drove about 25 minutes north to the auto body shop recommended by the dealership where they bought the van. They will not be able to begin repair work until next week after the insurance adjuster sees the van on Monday. They estimate they will have the van for about two weeks, so Heather and Jed are going to have to rent a car. Their second car is the Ford Taurus that we drive and both cars are busy full-time.
When Sam, Jonah, and I returned, Ollie and Heather were up from their nap and ready to head to Woods Hole for the Marine Biological Lab’s (MBL) 125th birthday party. Ollie’s temp was up and down all day, depending on how long it had been since he last took baby Tylenol, but he was hanging in there and didn’t want to be left out of the action. So I dropped Heather off with all three boys at the MBL party site and then headed out to Windbird to cook dinner for everyone. With all the fans running inside the boat, it was actually delightfully cool inside, so once the Goldstones arrived after attending the MBL party, we ate inside hiding from the still burning hot evening sun shining into the cockpit. We had a delightful dinner together and then went to shore for an ice cream dessert. So the turned out just fine, even with Ollie’s temp and Heather’s encounter with the gate post.
Tomorrow should be a work day for Heather and a Camp Oma day for Sam and Jonah, but we are going to have to adjust plans for tomorrow as well. Ollie will not be able to go to daycare because of the temperature. But if he is doing as well tomorrow as he did today, I will take all three boys to swim class. Mark doesn’t go to work at West Marine until 11 am, so he is going to the park to help out with Ollie during swim lessons. Then we’ll take Mark to work and head to Woods Hole. By this time, Heather will have put in a couple of hours of work and she will take off to join us for a lunchtime trip out to Devil’s Foot Island. We’ll come back to Windbird for naptime and that way Heather can go back to work for a couple of hours. We’ll figure out the rest of the day once we know how Ollie is doing. One thing is for sure. No matter how bad he feels, he will be a happy little guy being included in the activities of his big brother. He is definitely happiest when he is able to tag along with the big boys.
 |
| 130717 Day 256 Cape Cod, USA–MBL's 125th Anniversary |
