How Do They Do That?! Part 3

Well y'all signed up for a treat this week. I was expecting a "normal" week. My point to my students has certainly been proven this week - there is no such thing as "normal" and this week is no exception.
The alarm went off at it's required 5:30am. All I wanted to do was sleep so I hit the sleep button - repetitively until 6:00ish. I finally woke up when Nate said I get dibs on the shower first. He knows that I about die if I'm not in the shower by 6 (because I expect men to take no more than 10 minutes and he cannot get it done in 10 minutes, and I know this is not proportional to my expectation that woen take at least 30 minutes but who cares!). Funny thing is I thought about my blog post this morning, and how all I will have to talk about is how I set the alarm to radio, but leave the station at static instead of music. Yes it wakes me up, no it doesn't wake Nate up. When I used actual music I wold just dream with the music incorporated into the dream and not wake up. This worked well when I worked for CPS because I set my schedule. Now the kids and I have to be at school on time for some weird reason. I'm not much of a time person and never have been. I'm usually pretty on time if not early, but I can't stand time setters. I don't wear a watch and would love to be at a school without bells. It worked in high school and I think it would work everywhere. When I used the alarm portion of my alarm clock it would shock me out of sleep. It would shock me so much that I would get fight or flight response and by God it was always flight. My body would fling itself into a sitting position and my heart would race. I decided that no one needed to suffer that on a daily basis - EVER! Now Z uses an alarm clock (set to 6am) with the buzzer part. The whole house hears it. We all get up. As excited as I am that he's growing up enough to use an alarm clock there are mornings I would like to throw his out the window.
So I promised that today wasn't a normal day, and I'm about to get to that. We had the usual dig through the hampers for socks and underwear routine. I promise that some day we'll actually fold the socks and underwear until then expect a Target run for socks real soon. BTW we store them under the laundry that's been laid out for hangers, but never quite made it on a hanger. That's why we leave the ironing board out every day. If you put on a shirt and the wrinkles don't mysteriously fly out of them you get to iron your clothes. This was followed by the daily reminder that there is no TV on school days before school. Z made his breakfast - oatmeal. A was busy trying to put her shoes on and tie them that I just poured her some cereal while waiting on my grits to absorb the water. Had the usual conversation about how berry Kix change the milk pink and even strawberry flavored. Then it was time for the 5 minute reminder before heading out the door to school. Usually at this time I open up the back door so that the dogs will go out for a potty break before they come in for the day. They are capable of staying out for the day, but don't like to and I'm picking my battles - dogs are not on the list at 7:15am. Nate would totally battle them for that one.
About the time I go to call the dogs in and usher the kids out we all hear yelping from the back yard. An occassional yelp is not uncommon, but this was loud and continuous. I rush out into the back yard to find Junior just standing there yelling with his front paw in the air. Chewy is still trying to get Junior to play. I go to Juniors side and start checking his paw for stickers or something - there's nothing there. I start feeling along his leg for anything out of the norm. Nothing. He's just yelling. Chewy continues to try to tackle us, I'm yelling for the kids to come get Chewy. I see the neighbors lights start to come on. Then the neighbors start to come onto their back porches (we can all see into each others yards, windows, etc. It's lovely). Another dog a few doors down starts to bark, his owner comes out and starts yelling at him. I'm sure the whole neighborhood is loving the commotion about now, but I can't figure out what's wrong with the dog. I try to lift him so that I can carry him up the stairs, but Junior would have none of that. He struggled out of my arms and scampered up the stairs yelling the whole time. At this point I think there is no way we'll be on time for school. I'll have to walk the kids to class begging not to be counted tardy. Junior is a pansy. He yelps at every little bump, so I leave him at home to "rest" and plan to check on him later.
The kids arrive just in time to join their classes walking down the hall into class for the start of the day. I arrive at school just in time to drop my stuff off in my room. OK I can check on the dog 2nd period. 2nd period comes, and I have students with immediate needs. 3rd period comes and I need to conference with a student. As soon as that's done I go check on Junior. He's still not moving, not putting the foot down, tail tucked and shaking. I race back to school to see when and if I can get a vet appointment. Great 1:40. I can cover another student need before I go. I know it will take time to get Junior in the car so I leave school at 12:50. I have to get back to deal with other student stuff. I have back up just in case, but I need to get back.
I get home and get Chewy into the back yard so that I can do what ever it takes to get Junior n the car. I put the leash on him only to have him adamantly refuse to walk. I try lifting him - no way. OK maybe if I wrap him in a blanket he'll let me lift him. Nope. I start calling neighbors to see who's home that can help. Maybe if I get him into Nate's rolling chair... Hahahahaha! That dog about killed me for trying that one. I call the vet's - how do I get this dog in the car! No additional ideas. I am on the verge of tears when I decide that I'm checking one last time to see if anyone is outside or home that can help me. It was like an answered prayer! There was a constable on my street. "Sir. Can you help me?" I half expected a no but thought I had to try. He said he would. Constable Thomas from Precinct 2 came in to my home, assured Junior he was safe, and expertly picked up Junior. Constable Thomas carried Junior all the way to the van, layed him inside and shut the door. Then went back to work.
Junior cried all the way to the vet. When we got there the staff was ready to help. They had two techs and a stretcher ready. Junior would not get on the stretcher so the techs just heaved him up and carried him into treatment. I waited, patiently. There was a really nicely dressed lady who came in with a plastic container of animal puke. Apparently she'd been collecting it and reporting on it. The office staff tried to give her the container back, but she told them to throw it out because she was late to a doctors appointment. She was dressed to the nines in a beautiful pair of black slacks and white / black print shirt. Jewelry everywhere, and the most cat hair I have ever seen attached to anyone's butt! I swear she was carrying a Persian Cat on her butt! At first I thought her one of those purse dog pet owners, but the hair tells it all. She was a cat woman. She probably had a lint roller in her car or purse and de-linted everywhere she could see, but missed the most important part - her butt! I'm certain if it were me I would want someone to tell me, but at that moment it was keeping me from crying about my poor puppy. I'm still laughing at her fuzzy white butt! There were many other clients coming and going, but that was just great. I wonder if she was just collecting hair balls for the vet.
Any way, when they called me into the room I had prepared for the worst - a broken something. Then I saw Junior walking into the exam room! The vet said they started the exam and were feeling around when they felt and heard a large pop. Junior had dislocated his shoulder and they popped it back into place. Anti-inflamatory meds and pain meds combined with lots of rest should do the trick. Oh and he might want to take joint supplements for a while just to help it heal strong. 2 weeks of kennel, followed by 2 weeks of supervised light activity. No problem - he loves the kennel (except when bring him home from the vets and he's been prescribed to be in it). I go to put him in the van only to have both of us lose control part way through the lift, but we made it. He yelps a few times on the way home. He's scented the car so I have every window open.
We get home and he hops out of the car with a yelp. Goes into the house and into my room - that he scents. Great. That will be wonderful to sleep in. It's smells a cross between a ferret, black licorice and a skunk. I give him the supplement because it's treat like. Then force the three little pills into his mouth and hold it shut till he swallows. The third medication I treat like the supplement and he takes it like a treat. No worries! Off to school again.
I get to school, and let everyone who covered for me know that I'm back. No major crisis while I'm gone. Check on a few things, and head to see kids. Of course they saved their needs for me to get back. One felt an urge to engage me in a short power struggle. Those are short lived when only one person plays. I still win because they have to process before going home. My room turned into a bit of a 3 ring circus this afternoon when I had to redirect a few crazy things, but it was all sorted out after a while.
I left school pretty exhausted, but I had on my mind that we had Boy Scouts and EC3 meeting. After a quick look in the fridge I realized nothing would cook fast enough. Pizza it is. Nathan and the kids arrived home. Nathan tried to take Junior potty out front, but he refused. I went to get the pizza while Nate continued trying potty, food, drink, anything for the dog. 15 minutes to eat and then off to the EC3 meeting. Get there and learn that I'm a week early. Swing by scouts to pick up A, and off to the pet store because Niki recommended Nature's Own for getting the scent odor out of the car and house. A and I spray the car down in the parking lot. Yes it's that bad. It's one of those smells that once you get it in your nose it won't come out.
A falls asleep in the car after a short temper tantrum about how she wants to play with her friend when we get home because her friend was asleep earlier. Get home and find that Junior had an accident in the bedroom. Spray that with the new cleaner, and prep the steam cleaner. I steam clean while Nate takes the dog potty again - no go, go figure. Figure out how to take apart the steam cleaner to clean all the dog hair out of it. We both knew we ad one it before, but couldn't figure it out then. You know if you flip the machine around enough, parts start flying off it. Get it clean. Get kids to bath, write a blog post, and off to bed because I'm EXHAUSTED!
Was today a "normal" day? Apparently, because we only have "normal" days around here. BTW - my shoulder that I spent almost a year in physical therapy with hurts. Probably from lifting a dog today. Might do a little PT before bed to keep it from getting bad.Oh! and Top Gear was fun last night. I was tempted to delete it because Nate fell asleep before it was over, but decided that would be rude. Somewhere in that day I managed to send an e-mail to Z's teachers that he couldn't work on homework over the weekend because he was puking. They did e-mail back, but I haven't really checked it because it's been such a "normal" day. I did notice that I have over 100 blog posts to read, but they'll keep. Read enough Facebook for a day (1 page) while I typed this post. Good night y'all! Expect more normalcy tomorrow :)