Happy Vernal Equinox & RANT

Yes, today is the official first day of Spring, 2006!!!!

Even though it was clear, chilly & cold here in NH today, warmer days are ahead. And the Red Sox begin their season two weeks from today, in Texas. The start of baseball season is always a good thing (because summer is just a mere three months away).

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The following rant is brought to you today by the letters
M, Q and the number 7.

After a long weekend (I took Friday off) this week didn't begin too well. Let me explain:

My ex is a nurse who works Saturday and Sunday nights from 7 pm to 7 am. 24 hours in two days but gets paid for 30 hours because of her shifts being on the weekend. Normally she comes to my apartment on Monday mornings after work to pick up my kids to bring them to school, since she is on her way home anyway. This means that I go into work half an hour late (usually it works out that way) because I obviously can't leave until she comes. She normally calls me to let me know that she is here, so I can open the door for her as the front door to my building is locked.

At 7:22 my phone rings. It is the ex as expected BUT she is calling from her house, not her cell phone. Uh oh.

I answer the phone and she says in a very weak voice: "Hello xxx. I got sent home from work last night because I'm sick. You need to bring the kids to school."

Obviously.

"Okay, that's fine."

"But you have to come here first because I have their school backpacks and lunches."

"Okay."

"Do you know how to get to M's school?"

"Ummm, no. I've never been there."

"Take a right out of the school parking lot. At the end of the street take another right and it's about 6 or 7 miles on the left."

"Fine, hope you feel better," reminding myself that I'm horrible with directions - even simple ones - unless they're written down, and I'm never going to remember this.

V and M go to the same school and I know where it is, except M is in afternoon Kindergarten and he goes to a daycare group in the mornings called 'Country Kids'
because he gets bored in the mornings when his sister is already at school. So I have to drop him off there and they'll bring him to the regular school at the appropriate time.

Immediately I call work to tell them I'm going to be a bit later than usual and am not sure what time I'll be there. I also briefly give reason why. The woman I talk to says she'll pass on the message for me.

So off we go, my kids and I. I did actually get them to school on time, dropping off V first. M was actually quite helpful in lending me a hand with the directions to his daycare group.

Do I have a problem driving my kids to school? No. None at all. It's part of the responsibility of being a dad.

Do I fault her for getting sick and being sent home from work? Certainly not.

(Here's where the RANT begins, in case you were wondering & thought you might have missed it.)

What I have a problem with is that ex chose to buy a house an hour away from me, in the middle of no-Weare because it was the only house that she saw in her price range that had "character" or "charm" or whatever nonsensical word she used. Of course she wouldn't listen to me when I suggested she buy a house around here, not only for my convenience but becasue she still works in Nashua. I'd wager there were several "charming and charachter filled" houses on the market in the Nashua area (where we lived while married and where she knew I'd move back to eventually) that would have been fine houses for her. But NOOOOOOOO. Especially when it means that instead of being 1/2 hour late for work I'm going to be 2+ hours late, which I was. 2 1/4 to be specific.

So on the way there and back I'm thinking of other things that could go wrong today, being that I'm only a morning person because I need to be at the moment and because Mondays suck anyway.

When I get to work, before I'm even able to take off my jacket, Andy, the owner's son, comes out of a meeting he was in and pulls me into the back room (which is a balmy 51.3 degrees F) to tell me I need to hack-saw through this piece of hardened steel that he needs to have (be) adapted to the extruder machine. Great. Just great.

So to sum up: I had a 2 hour commute to my work today which is less than four miles from my apartment and I had to hack (slowly) through this ridiculous piece of metal... I got through half of it before someone found an electric saw in the trunk of their car....

Fortunately the day got better after this...

BTW, I'm not apologizing for this rant. Whose blog is it anyway??? So there.