Funny Fortunes

We had a big family dinner at a Chinese restaurant tonight. With Ed's parents and all three of his siblings and their significant others, two nephews and a niece. The rest of the nephews and nieces are scattered hither and yon. The family is having an early Christmas this weekend to accommodate the brother who traveled from Washington and couldn't get time off work to make the trip nearer Christmas. We're having the traditional Christmas dinner at his other brother's house a few miles north of here tomorrow afternoon and opening presents in the evening.

Anyway, the point of this post is about the fortunes Ed and I got in our fortune cookies tonight. We each got such a kick out of ours.

Mine read: You could make a name for yourself in the field of medicine. As soon as I read it to myself I found myself saying, "They're gonna name a disease after me." and then read the fortune aloud. The waitress, who was nearby putting my leftovers into boxes for me, overheard and laughed.

Then Ed read his: You will be surrounded by things of luxury. And I said "Well that TV is a start, I guess." (see Thursday's post) But he said: "I'm surrounded by things of luxury everyday at work. I'm just loading them on trucks for someone else." The waitress, my niece and I laughed.

We hadn't been back from the restaurant twenty minutes when I got a call from my sister. She, her son and my Mom were at the pizza parlor a couple blocks from the entrance to our trailer park. When last we spoke (see Thursday's post) Mom was getting out of rehab on Friday and they were planning to leave the Sacramento CA area tomorrow afternoon and spend tomorrow night at a motel nearby. The plan was for me to see if I could get packed in time to leave with them Monday afternoon. But it was iffy then what with me having been sick since Sunday and this family gathering stuff going on all weekend.

They came on north a day early hoping to beat the big snow storm over the pass to the south. The Siskiyou Pass is the highest and steepest and curviest. The one to the north isn't nearly as challenging though it wouldn't be exactly your typical Sunday drive when iced up and and with visibility decreased.

So they arrived a day early and I think their preference is to head north tomorrow if the pass is passable. But it is very unlikely that I can be ready to leave with them that soon. Especially with the family dinner tomorrow afternoon. But if I can make enough progress in packing in the morning so that it looks probable that I can be ready by noonish on Monday then it might be worth it for them to spend another night. Of course when they head on depends a lot on what the storm drops on the pass tonight. It was just starting to spit snow here about nine tonight.

If I can't be ready to leave with them then someone (either my sister or my brother's wife) would have to drive back down a few days later to get me. My help is needed for the next several weeks as my Mom continues to recover from the surgery on her broken hip and the mild stroke from a post surgery blood clot. I'm going to be on kitchen and laundry duty. I'll probably stay until late January or even into February. If it wasn't for the length of the stay, I could pack a lot quicker. (Or if I hadn't made such a mess of things during NaNo.)

If it wasn't for the issue with that monster TV, (see Thursday's post.) I'd feel a lot better about leaving now. If I leave Ed to handle the task of rearranging the room to make room for it, I will still be looking for things in here this time next year. I'll be fretting about that the whole time I'm in Longview. And yet it seems a trivial thing compared to the cost in time and money to have someone come back down after me in less than a week.

Well, this isn't conducive to getting it done. I'm supposed to be getting a couple gifts wrapped tonight while everyone else is asleep. If I don't I'll have to do it tomorrow in here, on the bed, with Merlin's help. And if I'm going to make any progress towards packing before we leave for the dinner, I need to sleep soon. There's nothing I can do about packing until Ed gets up at 4AM. And that's less than four hours now. And I shouldn't skimp too much on sleep either or I'll give this cold new legs.