"Bless His Heart"

“I don’t need another mother!”   I’ve heard that statement a lot during 29 years of marriage.   Generally, it follows my giving my husband instructions, a reminder, a suggestion, etc.   Well, “bless his heart”.   (Please read that with lots of sarcasm.)

I have really fallen down on my job of trying to mother.  If I had been on my mother toes, I would not have made FIVE trips to the airport in less than 24 hours. 

Actually, this all started last Thursday when Hub’s flight home was to arrive at 10:15 AM.    I was watching his flight status to know when to leave for the airport.   I knew it wasn’t good when he called half an hour after the flight was to have left.  He was home vacuuming thinking that his flight was actually a little later.  He got to the airport finding that he was many gates down.  After a hard run, he was greeted with a less than empathetic airline employee.  I’m sure he greeted him with love, too, but that would be another story.   Anyway, it was close to 4 PM when he finally arrived.

We had a nice extended weekend and he was booked on a flight leaving at 3:50 PM.   He had several errands yesterday morning before he left.   One of those errands was to take the house papers required by the relocation company.   I had received them, signed them, had them notarized and overnighted to him in NC about 10 days ago.   He was to sign, have his signatures notarized and overnight to the proper people.  (Note that overnight envelope and paperwork were provided.)  As it turns out, they were in his suitcase and still unsigned.  He signed, ran by the bank for notary service and then brought them back to me.  Again, “bless his heart”.

We left for the airport (Trip #1) and got him there in plenty of time.   He checked the papers in the car and noticed that the notary failed to sign in two places.  I went back to the bank to get that taken care of.  When I got there, I noticed that Hub’s keys were in the ignition.   He certainly didn’t need the keys to my car, but did need the keys to his offices, desk, files, etc.    Tried to call him but figured he had boarded when I didn’t get an answer.  While the notary was taking care of business, I noticed that he had missed signing one of the documents and didn’t attach the required copy of his driver’s license.  Without it, I could not send the rest of the papers in anyway.  Kept trying to call and decided to head over to the post office and check on overnighting the papers and keys to him.  While in line, he called after noticing his keys were gone.   His flight was late but we decided that it was probably too close for me to make it back there.   Filled out the paperwork for express mail and then found out that “overnight” would actually be four days due to the holiday.   Grabbed the envelope and ran to the car and headed to the airport like a speed demon.  (Trip #2)   I phoned Hub on the way and he met me outside; grabbed the envelope and ran back inside.   Whew…..or so I thought.   Got halfway home and got another call from Hub.  His flight was cancelled due to mechanical difficulties.  The next flight would be the next day.  So……here I go again.  (Trip #3)  I picked up a happy husband.   Happy, happy, happy.  We stopped by the bank and he signed and she notarized.   As soon as we got home, he copied his license; we checked the stack of paperwork one more time; put it in the overnight envelope and sealed it up…..finally.

Today, we got up for the now VERY familiar half-hour trip to the airport.   We were up and busy before we left as we had a house showing scheduled for 10:15.   We got a call a few minutes before we left that the appointment had to be cancelled.  Oh, well, we are ready for the next showing.    The three of us head to the airport to say our goodbyes.    #2 son and I got halfway home when my phone rang.   Hub is having a meltdown because he can’t find his driver’s license.  He was so upset the day before that he figured that he left it somewhere.   He wanted me to make calls and see what it would take to get another while he went to lost and found.  I told him to go through his briefcase and suitcase.   I really figured it was in there.  I pulled off at the nearest exit…….just in case.    After I called the DMV to check on getting a new license, it hit me.    He had made a copy of his license at home.   His license was probably still on the copier.    I called and #2 son and I headed back to the airport.   (Trip #4)   We picked up Hub and headed home.  #2 son was laughing.   Hub and I…..not so much.   Every time that Hub had a schedule change, he had to make several calls to take care of being picked up in NC.   Today is his daughter’s birthday so although she was going to pick him up yesterday, she could not today.  Also, he had bought a used Miata right before he left town but had not taken delivery.  He was trying to get there to pick it up.  The car dealer has been pretty flexible with him including offering to pick him up this morning, but he has reached his limit.   As it stands, a friend of Kim’s is going to pick him up at the airport and take him to the car lot where another salesman has agreed to meet him after hours.   It takes a village…….

I took Hub back to the airport two hours early.  (Trip #5)   The airline would not re-book his flight when he was at the airport as he didn’t have his I.D.    When he tried to call, there were only 3 seats left and they were going to charge him a big surcharge; so we were rushing with high hopes.   This time, I parked and went in.  I didn’t want to leave until he was ticketed and heading toward security.   If he didn’t make this flight, he might as well start walking.

Just thought I would let you know a little about my day.  Hub did call me when he landed in NC.   As far as him making the other connections…….he’s on his own.    I’m not his mother…….bless his heart.