Good Grief

What a lousy weekend. It started off with disaster at my mother's condo. She called in near hysteria early Friday evening. Apparently while she was blissfully unaware at work earlier that afternoon some doctor's punk kid and his girlfriend decided a slight detour from the road into my mother's back bedroom was a good idea. No joke. They never even hit the brakes. Considering that they had to 1) cross the opposite lane of traffic, 2) cross a grass median, 3) plow through the property fence, 4) smash through a carport, 5) barrel through my mother's patio fence, 6) totally demolish/flatten her gigantic air conditioning unit, and 7) almost completely destroy the fence that separates my mother's patio from her adjoining neighbor's before coming to rest mostly in my mother's back bedroom/partially in her neighbor's actual bedroom, it's been estimated they were doing about 100 miles an hour. Mind you, I believe the speed limit on the road they originated from is only 40. Was anyone hurt? Thankfully, no. Was the kid arrested? No. Why? Very good question. Reportedly the cop said the kid was "stressed out." Well good for him, I'm stressed out too -- does that mean I drive recklessly, endanger lives, and destroy property? I mean, c'mon!

To the best of our ability we removed all the boxes and furniture my mother had stashed in that room (it had been her "holding" area while she got organized) and swept up the glass that was shattered all over everything. Her neighbor reversed the doorknob/lock on the bedroom door (so it would lock from the hallway as opposed to the interior of the bedroom) and hung a tarp over the hole. Best that could be done, all things considered.

I also spent over an hour on the phone with various people at the kid's car insurance company trying to get an answer as to how exactly we were supposed to protect my mother's home -- with it's gaping hole clearly visible from the road and multiple drive by's "to see the accident" -- from looting and/or vandalism overnight (the insurance adjuster was supposed to have investigated the accident the next day). With no one able to even verify that the kid was covered at all, let alone to what level, it was actually suggested to me that 1) we pack up her valuables and move, or 2) that we contact a construction company to come board up the hole and "be sure to keep any receipts." Right, at 8pm on a Friday night, a construction company is going to answer their phone let alone come board up a house? And since the insurance company couldn't "authorize" the expense anyway, they couldn't provide a referral for said construction company.

I basically said screw you to the last incredibly unhelpful insurance agent I spoke with and called an off-duty police officer to guard the place. It's all well and good that Mom's neighbor stayed in his home despite his new view to the great outdoors, but the guy isn't exactly a spring chicken. The whole scenario just didn't feel safe to me. Mom stayed with us overnight. And good thing too. At about 3AM the officer heard a pop and saw a flash of blue. She got out of her car to investigate and it happened again. Live electricity rearing it's ugly head from what was left of the air conditioning unit. It's a wonder the place didn't catch on fire along with everything else that had happened.

Oh and did I mention that while all of this was happening, The Boy was at baseball practice (thank goodness his mother took him) and Kyle was on a red-eye flight, coming back home from meetings in CA?

So Saturday morning rolls around. The insurance adjuster makes it known that surveying the damage won't happen until Monday (good thing Mom's neighbor took 100s of pics Friday afternoon before anyone started cleaning anything up), electricity to the air conditioner is turned off but power and water remain on to my Mom's house itself, and she decides to tough it out for the rest of the weekend. Mind you it was gray and nasty all day Saturday and only in the 80's, but Sunday was clear, sunny and in the 90's. I'm not sure how she managed not to melt. At least there was a nice breeze.

After such a lovely start to things, we had a TON of stuff to do around our own home. Like 8 loads of laundry, yard work, errands, etc. Kyle even painted the nursery. It seems like all we did was work. Add to that the fact that, hello, I'm 35 weeks pregnant and it's no wonder I had a meltdown last night. As a result I think I slept all of 2 hours. So on top of being irritable and moody, now I'm exhausted and feeling sick to my stomach from all the turmoil. And as if to add injury to insult, here's one of today's headlines: "Stress in pregnancy raises risks for baby: study"