Mystical Disorder of RVs

You know the great thing about an old car (besides being totally paid off) is that every once in awhile, the gremlins in the car will get restless.  This only happens with old cars.  New cars have young and lazy gremlins, while old cars have bored and malicious ones.  I discovered that our gremlins were fed up with all the rain we've been having.  I was driving up to Birmingham the other day.  A bright, sunny and warm day.  About half-way there I turn the radio up, gotta have the rockin' tunes.  Suddenly, the rear windshield washer and wiper come on.  I think that I merely knocked it and try to turn it off, only to discover it was off and I just restarted it.  Then, it continues to go off.  The people behind me must think I need new glasses or just have OCD about rear window cleanliness.  The stupid thing doesn't stop!  I finally just turn the wiper itself on, and this stops the fluid.  But now the wiper is going...and it's still bright and sunny out.  I feel like that old person who leaves their left blinker on for 80 Kilometers (you had to be there), only I realize that maybe that poor old person wasn't forgetful, just dealing with a gremlin.  I try, at one point, to turn the whole thing off and for about 10 minutes it works.  Then the washer and wiper start going again and I resign myself to driving with the rear wiper just going in order to save the washer fluid.  "Lonnie", of course, thinks that I'm an idiot and this couldn't possibily be what is happening.  Until it happens to him and I am vindicated!  So what was the problem, you ask?  "Lonnie" figures that after 3 days of torrential downpours, the chip in the wiper was wet (gremlins were sick of rain) and caused a short.  Problem is temporarily solved by wiper being disconnected.  I figured we'd be set until we went to leave at oh-dark-and-cold-thirty this morning for our race in Birmingham, only to have a dead battery.  To the gremlins credit, it was 23 degrees out and honestly I didn't want to be up either.  However, a quick jump fixed all and we had a great Mercedes Half-Marathon.  I can't walk at the moment, but the shiny medal was soooo worth it!!

 



OK, I must tell you all about Mardi Gras.  This is why living in a trailer is great, roadtrips!!! Now, anyone who poo-poos this awesome celebration just because you don't think you'll get enough beads because you a: don't want to flash strangers or b: would flash them but aren't confident in your advertising...must try Mobile, Alabama for your future celebrations!  Not only is there a plethora of free beads thrown at you, but there is no nudity required (and you'd probably get arrested if you did).  Mobile is the home of Mardi Gras.  Yes, I know you all thought it was New Orleans, however they are posers.  A man by the name of Joe Cain revived the fesitval of Mardi Gras in 1867 (post Civil War) by parading down the main street dressed like a crazy Indian (because the Natives never surrendered to the Union).  The rest is history.  There are weeks of daily parades, and we hit 3 parades and one 5K race in just a weekend!  It is super kid friendly and very safe...which for those who know me, these are not normally 2 criteria I waste time considering for a family adventure (what, there is a small possibility of a hospital trip?  Let's do it and take the kids!). 

 

Mobile has great, fresh gulf seafood (no added petroleum), the USS Alabama battleship, and beaches.  The kids really liked the battleship, except after Ayla slid/fell down some stairs Navy-style.  That scared her and battleship time was over although it was the coolest move ever--she slipped straight down riding the railing, "Lonnie" catches her, no injuries.  Instead, we focused on parades which all had cool names, like the Mystical Order of Time, and all their floats were time-themes.  The kids loved the floats (the ones at night were all lit up) and getting free stuff thrown at them.  It was so bad at one point that Kai was trying to take beads from other adults!  Orion took to screaming as loud as he could as each float passed, not to get anything, just to scream loudly.  Ayla danced to the music and fought Kai for beads and free toys.  Oh, and we got whacked with moon pies which are actually pretty gross tasting, but the kids were nuts for them.  I did get beaned in the back of the head with a container of uncooked Ramen Noodles.  Who the heck throws those at a parade?!   Our total tally of spoils was countless beads (in the hundreds I think) 7 stuffed animals, frisbee, 5 plastic Mardi Gras cups, 3 balls, 5 glow sticks, 2 glow rings, candy and moon pies, one pair of kids swim goggles, an I-Pad (not really), and a styrofoam tree.  Unfortunately, we lost the Ramen Noodles.  Better luck next year!

 

 

Kids Are So Encouraging

There is a mystery in the trailer. We think that it's aliens but the bite marks are definately mammalian.  Our fruit has been coming up missing.  Two weeks ago "Lonnie" was outside and when he came in there was apple carnage strewn throughout the trailer.  Nothing left but four measely apple cores, and a fifth found later under the bed. We dusted for fingerprints and came up blank. Last week, again during a time when the kitchen area was ignored, an empty blackberry container was found on the table.  A true massacre of mastication of so precious a fruit!!  At this point, we were starting to wonder if the neighbors were playing tricks on us, but no, it couldn't be.  This past weekend, we finally discovered the culprits after finding every one of the strawberries, still in the carton, each with a single bite taken out.  The offenders were caught hovering over their prey like lions.  Our kids, the ferral ones, have been getting into the fridge when we aren't looking and desimating entire populations of fruit at one sitting!!  I mean, come on, one bite out of every strawberry??  I suppose we should be happy that it's fruit and not chocolate or Borax.  At least the mystery is solved and we don't have to report the findings to Area 51.

In this bitter cold Alabama winter (not) there are some days when people feel down or blue.  It's usually those days or moments when your kids do something so incredibly cute it just lifts your spirit for hours.  If they are our kids, they do something tremendously destructive involving an urgent care visit.  And while this also lifts me out of the doledrums long enough to supervise explain things to the doctor, the high is not nearly as much fun.  Recently, however, the kids have been emminently supportive of many of my endeavors.  Why, just last week I was wiping down the kitchen table before breakfast and Ayla, watching me, starting cheering "Go, go, go, Mommy, go!" as if I was sprinting the last half of a desperate housewives marathon and barely beating Susie Homemaker for the win.  I had no idea that cheerleading had spread to the domestic arena.  Her cheering did come in handy in a recent Mardi Gras race we did as a family.  And by family I mean that "Lonnie" ran an 8K by himself and I ran a 5K with Orion strapped to my back AND I was pushing the other two in the stroller.  At about the 2 mile point was a large hill and I was tired.  About halfway up I hear "Go Mommy, go, go, Mommy, go, go!"  Little Ayla was cheering me up the hill.  If I hadn't been using my heart to provide my body oxygen at that moment, it might have melted. 

On the flip side are the boys.  They are adorable, surely, but definately not as supportive.  Tonight, after Kai went to bed, I was humming while doing some reading.  I'm about 3 bars in and I hear an abrupt and slightly annoyed, "Mommy, what are you doing?" followed immediately by "Mommy, stop that."  I explain that Mommy is humming and apologize through smiling lips that I woke him.  "Lonnie" can tell me all he wants that I can't sing, but normally the kids prefer my donkey bray to his nails-on-chalkboard.  About 10 minutes later I forget and start humming again.  "Mommy, why are you doing that?"  Apparently he's not asleep yet.