Role Playing

Yesterday I got be a treasure hunter, triage nurse, surgeon and plumber all in the matter of two hours. Let's just say that I was ready for bed at the end of that.

We spent the afternoon at the birthday party for a four year old friend. It was the second of what looks to be four unseasonably warm days and many attendees were nursing sunburns from the first of those days. We're having July weather in April. And I refuse, out of good old New Englander stubbornness, to turn on the AC in April. But that is neither here nor there...

After we got home I asked Dee Dee and Little Dudely to put their bicycles away. While running up and down our (long) gravel driveway, Dee Dee's shell bracelet broke. She returned to the house distraught and thus began my time as a treasure hunter. Just try to find a dozen small shells on a 300' stretch of gravel driveway, I dare you.

Upon the successful completion of that adventure we returned home for bath time. Once upstairs Dee Dee declared that her knee hurt and that she was unable to walk on it. So she hobbled around to demonstrate. I considered my options. No obvious cause like some sort of trauma, late Sunday night (no options but the ER), nothing making it worse. She was deemed low priority for the moment. Bath time was more pressing.

Next Little Dudely emerged from his room after dressing for bed holding out his hand: "What's this?" he asked pointing at his finger. A splinter. I sighed and retrieved the tweezers and a pin. After carefully explaining what I was going to do Little Dudely allowed me to extract the splinter as gently as I could. He even bravely held a light for me. Then we went and found the perfect bandaid.

When I was done with Little Dudely's snuggle I went to check on Dee Dee who was finishing her getting-ready-for-bed routine in the bathroom. As I opened the door she gasped and burst into tears. She had just dropped one of her earrings into the sink... I retreated downstairs to gather myself.

That was the first time recently that I've been grateful that my nose has been mostly plugged from an endless series of colds (I'm finishing up two months of sniffling and all those other symptoms). What I could smell as I removed the trap from the plumbing was beyond foul. Not fully understanding the quantity or quality of muck I had in the trap, I dumped it into another (plugged) sink. That's when I realized that my only hope for recovering the earring was to stick my hand into that putrid mess and swish around in it. The earring is now soaking in an antiseptic bath.

After reassembling the plumbing and declaring my success to Dee Dee I returned to the office to look up knee pain on the internet. I went back upstairs to evalute Dee Dee's knee. Earlier she had been unable to straighten it and experienced more pain with her foot flexed than pointed. As I got ready to ask her to test her knee I saw her amble easily across the room with Pip in her arms. Huh? Whatever was wrong had fixed itself - at least for the time being.

All I knew was that I was done with the trials of the evening. I hoped.