We got a late start this year, because Jillian was up north helping her sister with the baby all last week. Yesterday was my first day of SCAE classes, so today was the big day. We had huge plans, involving assessments and other incredibly important-sounding things.

Late last night, however, I found out that a friend and her husband, forced to vacant one living arrangement 4 days prior to entering into a new one, were going to abandon their pool and other belongings because this morning was the very last chance to get them out. I asked Tom to leave me the truck and rallied the troops.

My friend came early today with her little one, leaving him here with Jill, Bridget and Adam. Steve and I went to her house, where we had a grand time draining the pool, disassembling it, and packing it up with as many other yard and garage items as we could squeeze into the bed of the F150. We already looked like The Clampetts – and if you don’t know who they are, you are too young to be reading this – but I got the bright idea that we had to turn in her bottles and cans. Four HUGE bags packed into the bed amongst the other stuff, and we were off to Alliance Redemption. Two of the bags decided to catch on the Radio Flyer, so we had quite a lot of loose cans and bottles to dig out. By the time we left there, all three of us were feeling pretty muddy. I think the hand sanitizer I proudly shared only moved the filth around, but we felt better.

Back to my house – and I was pretty sure we didn’t have the energy to unload the truck. We decided to live with  it until the husbands arrived for dinner at Chez Genereux. My friend left to – are you ready for this? – take a quick shower at the motel then GO PICK UP A FRIEND’S 6 MONTH OLD TO HELP OUT FOR THE AFTERNOON. We are all nuts, if you ask me. I told her to bring the 3 kids and hubby back around 5 for a BBQ, and grabbed her dirty laundry out of the car to run it through before dinner.

Dropped Bridget at work, then went to Walmart for dinner stuff. Jill waited in the truck, to guard all of the belongings drooling out of the bed. When I got back to the truck and loaded up the groceries, many of which were perishable, I was floored to discover that the truck wouldn’t start. Weird little clicking sound. I called the same friend who had two kids in the backseat and two at school, and asked if she could please come save the groceries and child. She showed up in no time, and sped away with my precious cargo. And my kid. Just kidding, Jill….

AAA was speedy – they decided it was probably the battery based on my description of the sound. Grondin Towing is awesome – they handle a lot of the AAA calls around here – so a hearty shout out to the guy in the battery truck. He said it was a “bad cell”. My mechanic, who is also awesome, had me drive it over and he quickly popped in a new battery. Another shout out to Ted Melanson. I was only 1.5 hrs behind on my schedule.

Finally arrived home to find that my three youngest cleaned the HECK out of the house – I think they were afraid I was heading for a nervous breakdown. Realized the potato salad hadn’t been started, and the friend’s laundry wasn’t getting any cleaner – but we quickly remedied all that.

HUGE thanks to my friend, for saving the groceries, and to my three youngest kids, for helping out ALL day with EVERYTHING.

Back to the books tomorrow – I think we all need the rest.