All You Can Do is Laugh...

It was going merrily along, when a message popped up that I had error 9999.171 and that I needed to download a removal tool to make sure there were no vestiges of Norton anywhere. Okay...so I did that. And ran through the whole thing again...same error. So here I was, needing to work on the Carnival of Homeschool submissions, only to discover that my computer was...UNPROTECTED! I felt like a teenager again! I was afraid to do anything. So it was late and I watched movies instead, figuring that on Friday, I would run across the street, do the updates (I figured that was what was causing the problem), then I would be hunky dory fine.

Meanwhile, Daniel called. He was due to come home Friday and they were calling for horrendous storms in Illinois. He said he had tried to get on an earlier flight out so he wouldn't get hung up, but the airline wanted to charge him 50.00. There were 18 open seats on the earlier flight (6 AM), and he said, I'll just come in and do a standby status. They informed him, that he would still have to pay 50.00....Is that crazy or what? So then we were concerned he might not get home in time. Monday is his birthday. Sunday we have a family cookout planned and we have lots to do today, so we were a wee bit concerned.

Fast forward through the sleeping hours to Friday morning. He called on his way to work and said it was already thundering and lightning. Uh-oh.... He would call back to let me know how it was going.

I went across to the office with my computer and started the Norton process all over again...guess what...2 hours later, yep, I said 2 hours later, I had gotten nowhere. I kept running into the same error. So I had to go. I needed to run to Lowe's to buy a grill for the cook-out and get back before the fellow came to work on the dampening pedal on the piano.

I got the kids moving (Katrina fussing about how she didn't want to go. Jack fussing at her for fussing) and we got into the Suburban...well, not right away. We haven't driven the Suburban since the fall when we cleaned it up in hopes of selling it (except for a trip to get inspected in March). So there were cleaning supplies in the seat where the kids needed to set. I moved everything to the front passenger seat. Kids climbed in. Katrina couldn't get her seat belt to latch and Jack's was messed up (sometimes, they retract all the way into their scabbord). This is a 1988 Suburban, it's tired. So, I got Katrina settled, moved the cleaning supplies back to the back seat, then got Jack in the front seat. Hopped into the driver seat, turned the key...and nothing...just the little clicking sound a vehicle makes when the battery has given up the ghost.

Dang it!

Everyone then moved to the Xterra and I realized I would end up having to put together the grill on my own...while I am the person in our house who usually assembles things, I was not crazy about doing this. Especially since my day was already pretty full. I came inside, called Daniel and his remark was something like..."Good luck with that." I told him, I had a 'bad feeling' about how the rest of the day was going to go.

On my way into town, he called and said his flight had been delayed and he was trying to get rerouted.

I got to Lowe's, got the grill, grill cover, protane tank and decided to pay the extra money to have the dang thing delivered. Daniel had picked out a really nice grill and it is a monster. I just wasn't sure I could put it together. It is supposed to arrive today (keep your fingers crossed people). While I was there, the children who were tired and cranky (at the same time, gotta hate that), kept snipping at each other. So much for displaying my well behaved homeschooled children. I was about ready to pull my hair out by the time we left Lowe's. And the special treat of hot chocolate from Joe Bean's that I was considering on our way into town, got left by the wayside.

So we get home. Daniel calls and says, he got rerouted, but he will be coming into Roanoke at 7, instead of Lynchburg (where his car is). I then had to call the friend that Katrina was going to visit for the night and ask if I could bring her earlier than 7, because at 7, I had to be in Roanoke. I grabbed a quick bite of lunch, then went across the street to work on Norton again. I called the tech support staff (and even though they told me it would be a 20 minute wait, it was more like 1 minute...that was awesome). A few minutes on the phone and I was hooked up with a remote assist and the Norton guy said this was going to take a while. So now, I couldn't use my computer and I couldn't work on those lovely Carnival submissions. How long could this take?

I went to the house, straightened up a bit. Wanted to exercise, but was expecting the piano repair guy to arrive around 2:30 and there wasn't time. 4:00, my computer is still in the hands of Norton (what the heck!) and the piano guy calls to tell me he broke down and it would be a while before he arrived. Meanwhile, I needed to leave at 5:30 to drop off Katrina and head to Roanoke.

So, we got ourselves together, ate, and left. Dropped off Katrina, I was in Vinton (suburb of Roanoke), when my cell rang. Daniel says...I missed my flight...call you back, Don't go to Roanoke! HAHAHAHA (hahaha is mine).

I pull into a parking lot and he calls back. He had forgotten to reset his computer clock when he arrived in Atlanta (Illinois is an hour behind). So when he thought he was leaving the restaurant 1/2 hour early to catch his flight, he was really 1/2 hour behind. He has never done this before. He tells me they have rerouted him for a later flight and now he was coming into Lynchburg. By the way, we live about 1 hour from Roanoke which is 1 hour from Lynchburg and Lynchburg is 30 minutes from our home. He will be in Lynchburg at 9:30 and I tell him we will be there.

Jack and I return home. It is about 7:30 as we are coming down our road and my cell rings....

Daniel informs me that he looked at the ticket wrong, they put him on a later flight...but not to Lynchburg, to Roanoke!!!! WHAT!!!!!

I went to the office, finally, after 5 hours (I kid you not), the people at Norton were done with my computer....5 HOURS! I took it to the house, did a couple of little things, then Jack and I drove back to Roanoke. About 1/2 hour into our journey, Daniel texted me and said there plane was delayed, so we didn't have to be there as early. I just laughed manically at this point and waited for him to text again saying the plane was broken and he wouldn't be coming at all...

But that didn't happen. The gods were finally done toying with us. We arrived at the airport at 9:30, he disembarked at 9:50 and we headed home...

Did I mention that I had to get up at 6 this morning because Jack and I have a church youth yard sale to go to ? Speaking of which, I need to jump in the shower so we can get going....

Ain't life grand! And really, on a day like that, all you can do is laugh....