Sharing the adventures

(Note on January 21, 2007: I wrote most of this in March of 2006, but never got around to posting it.)

Do you ever feel like you are living out a bad movie? Like things happen that are so improbable, and so ridiculous, that someone must have scripted it for plot development or effect?

A good example of this would be that when Stephen and I shared our first kiss, we were sitting under a tree in a park in the evening, and just as we kissed, fireworks, yes, real live fireworks, went off. It was July 3, 1991, obviously the day before Independence Day, and apparently some kids had brought some (illegal in RI) fireworks to the park to play with. A reasonable scenario, yes, but still, fireworks for your first kiss?

Well, it seems that our propensity for goofy situations (see just about every entry in this blog) is rubbing off on our guests.

Visitors' Adventures take 1: When Ben and Esther came to visit us with their family, they drove out into a blizzard at 3:00am to get to the airport, and had an accident in a foot and a half of snow, 100 yards from their house. They tried to dig out but couldn't. They left a note for the owner of the parked car they'd slid into and began to trudge home through the blizzard with their 2 year old and 5 year old, when a police officer stopped them, and made Ben go back and wake up the car's owner to tell him what had happened. The owner was much more reasonable than the police officer (the car had not been damaged!) and said they'd talk on the phone later. As soon as they got home, they called the airline. Their flight was not leaving for three or four more hours. They were on hold until after the flight took off, so were considered no-shows, and had to buy brand new tickets. So not only did they arrive a day late, they had to leave a day early (their seats on their return flight had already been resold!!). The icing on the cake was that Farmer Boy ran a fever from two hours after their arrival until two hours after their departure.

Visitors' Adventures take 2: Our friends Greg and Amy (and THEIR 5 yr old and 2 yr old) are now here with us. After the troubles with Ben and Esther's flights (and his disappointment at being sick the whole time), Farmer Boy was convinced something bad was going to happen on Greg and Amy's flight. We heard not a word from them, followed their flights online; everything was on time and peachy. Stephen and The Princess went to the airport while the Boy and I stayed home. Twenty minutes after the flight arrived, Stephen calls: "Have you heard from Greg and Amy?". OY! Thankfully, they actually were there, it just took 40 minutes for them all to find each other.

So they arrive on Thursday, and on Friday they borrow our car to drive the 3 hrs to Waco to visit some old friends. Four hours after they leave, Greg calls. The tire has exploded. He's put the spare on but is hesitant about driving it back. Later that evening he calls and says they have decided to spend the night because the car was too weird to drive with the spare. Next morning, an hour before we expect them back, he calls again. He'd gotten up early to go get the tire fixed, and when he tried to unlock the driver's door, the key broke in the lock. You see what I'm saying about the bad movie, yes?

Well, they finally make it back, about 18 hours later than originally planned. Sunday is basically eventless, save the breaking of a small part on one of the seatbelts in the truck.

Monday, everyone decides to go into Austin and leave me alone on the farm for some much coveted time to myself. I help load everyone into dad's truck (the only vehicle that will fit more than 5 people), and Amy can't get her seatbelt to come out (a different seatbelt this time). It is positively stuck. Later Stephen calls to update me on their trip. All is going well; I hear about the visit to the ice cream place and playing in the park, and the bookstore Amy is hanging out at while the guys took the kids to a computer store and "The car just died." "You mean right now? It just stopped going right this minute?" "Yes." "Can you turn it back on?" "I think it's out of gas. I have been looking at the battery gauge not the fuel gauge all this time." They eventually make it back to the farm. Greg was the adult who had the most FUN of all, since he was the one stuck in the car with four kids while Stephen walked to a gas station and Amy sat in a bookstore wondering where everyone was.

Should I go on about the cows that escaped when Ben was here or the fence he and I had to repair or the sheep that left the property when Greg was here and we couldn't herd back? No, I'll let you just imagine how much fun YOU are going to have, and what exciting transportation and livestock adventures will come YOUR way, when you visit us.

Visitors' Adventures, take 3... anybody? Anybody?