The Norwegan Widower - Day 4

I was startled awake in the middle of the night by something thrashing frantically under my legs.  In my sleep, I must have folded one of our cats into the blanket and rolled over on top of him.  The cat survived, but I’m not sure he will try to snuggle with me on the bed anymore – and I am okay with that.  The only thing furry I prefer in bed with me is my wife when she forgets to shave her legs for a week.

I crashed back to sleep again until the dastardly alarm clock woke me up at a quarter to seven.  Due to Bitsy’s first student council meeting, this morning was a bit more chaotic as I had to get both kids out the door at the same time.  I timed it somewhat poorly such that neither kid was able to finish their breakfast, and much to her horror, Bitsy only had seven minutes to consume her medicine instead of her regular eight.  Plus, while I combed Tito’s hair, I didn’t wet it down first, so he looked like a kid that, well, combed his hair without wetting it down first.

But, I will admit, I preferred getting them both ready at the same time.  Why?  Because I worked hard for 45 minutes, and then re-assumed my slumber in the cat-free bed.

Around 10 o’clock, I was awoken by Big Daddy’s voice in our kitchen.  He was returning my car and had not only filled it up with gas, but also got the oil changed and washed it inside and out.  Who knew that someone could get so much done at such an early hour of the day?

“Ummm, the folks at Valvoline said it has been over 10,000 miles since you last changed your oil,” Big Daddy said.  Is he fanatic about oil changing?  Well, I think if he ever wins the lottery (albeit difficult because he doesn’t play), he will hire someone to change the oil on his car daily, and probably also the oil in the cars owned by my brother and I as well.

Not wanting to disappoint him, I figured my best option was to flat out lie.  “No,” I said as believably as I could, “I changed it myself once in between, probably 5,000 miles ago.”

“No you didn’t,” he replied, “there was still a Valvoline oil filter on your car.”  Seriously, how did he find that out, did he tell the folks at Rapid Oil to hand him the filter?  I decided it would be best to continue the lie and tell him that I thought I had changed it 5,000 miles ago, but must have been mistaken, when in reality, I knew I hadn’t. 

After he drove away, all I could think was here is a guy who does all these nice things for me, and what do I do in return?  I lie to him.  So, five minutes later I called him up and confessed my sins.  He laughed and forgave me, and I felt better for coming clean.  And I am quite happy not to have an overdue oil change hanging over my head for at least the next 2-3 months.

I worked,  wrote, and puttered for the next few hours, and resisted the temptation to take my second nap of the day (hey, it works for infants).  However, once the kids were safely home, I went and laid down for another hour,  although the noise of cats and phone calls made it impossible.

Upon rising, I serviced the cats (food, water, litter box) and then thought about what to cook for dinner.  Much to Tito’s delight, I made Domino’s Pizza.  He has gluten and dairy allergies, so his diet is very limited.  And while Kacey compensates for this by working hard to come up with delicious alternative recipes for him, my skill is limited to cooking hamburgers patties to different temperatures.

I placed our order, and Tito’s small, gluten-free, cheese-less, and 4 topping pizza came in at 14 bucks.  The deep dish two-topping medium that Bitsy and I shared was 6 bucks cheaper.  I briefly considered asking Tito to eliminate a couple of the toppings he selected.  But then, I thought, this kid always gets the short end of the stick when it comes to food, and when the kids go to bed tonight I’ll probably crack open a $10 bottle of wine to accompany my writing, so just shut up and buy him the $14 pizza.  Plus, two of his toppings seemed like vegetables, quite possibly the only input from that food group he will receive this week.

After dinner, we played a family game, and I sent the kids off to bed.  The good news is they brushed their teeth; the bad news is their melons are still not washed.

After writing for a couple hours, and generally feeling very antsy (pretty sure I am missing my wife) I hit the hay earlier than normal.  The cats must also going through Kacey-withdrawal as they were making all sorts of clatter in our room.  While one part of me just wanted to invite them on to the bed, roll over on top of them and just stay there this time, I instead just went and slept in the guest room.  Kicked out of my bed…by cats.