Hump Day

June 11, 2008

I overheard Erin talking to Davis on the phone yesterday. Her side of the conversation went something like:

"Hey, Davis. . .

Yeah. We're headed home. . .

Already on the HOV lane. . .

Yeah. We are two hours earlier today than yesterday. . .

Yeah. We were the last ones left yesterday. . .

I don't know. I just took six hours to do something that was supposed to take about an hour or two. Today it only took about three and a half hours. . .

What? What does a dog do that a man steps in? Poop?. . .

[Laughing a belly laugh] Oh I get it. Pants. . .

Another one?. . .

I don't know what a man does standing up, a woman does sitting down, and a dog does on three legs. Maybe pee?. . .

Shake hands. I don't get it. . .

[Laughing more now] Oh. I get it now. Do you want to talk to mom? Okay. She'll talk to you later then. Bye."

Brothers and sisters. I can't explain them.

Anyway. Erin and I have had a successful week for the most part (other than the delays. . .unfortunately the patient load at Texas Children just gets larger and larger, so there are always unanticipated bottlenecks.) We were really lucky to have Jesse and his mom go with us on Monday and Jackson to travel with us on Tuesday.

Erin made the command decision to let me take her IV out last night so she and Jackson could get a couple of hours of swimming in after we got back to Bryan. I was really pretty surprised, since it took three tries and a whole lot of wailing to get it in on Monday. It turned out to be a most excellent decision, since her best-beloved IV placer was back today and hit the vein on the first try with no problems (other than waiting an hour and twenty-six minutes--but who's counting?-- for our turn).

We are treating ourselves for hump day and will spend the night at the Marriott and catch the new Indy Jones movie this evening. This ought to give us a head start on our infusion tomorrow and put us back to town fairly early. That will leave one more round trip before a two week break.

Erin will celebrate her eleventh birthday a week from Friday (on the 20th). If you would like to send her a birthday card or post card, you can mail it to:

Erin Buenger
c/o Mo Ranch Summer Camp
2229 FM 1340
Hunt, TX 78024-3037

It takes a long time for mail to get that deep into west Texas, so the earlier you put it into the mail (even tomorrow) the better.