M's niece B is at the ER with severe lower abdominal pain,which sounds like appendicitis to me but M's mom doesn't believe it's that.

And I ordered some Fiskars spring action scissors from Amazon the other day and the 2nd day I had them the little clasp on them broke. I went to return them and had to contact the seller , which I have. They wanted photo evidence, which I provided. And this is the message I got back:

"We're truly sorry to hear that you've encountered an issue with your recent order. The pictures you shared; we reviewed them carefully. We are willing to offer discount of 15% on product purchase price. Please let us know your decision. so that we can proceed accordingly."

That doesn't sound like they are offering a full refund , just a 15% refund. But I want to be sure so I replied with this:

"I would be happy to accept a refund of the full purchase price and a 15% discount on a replacement. That is a very generous offer but understandable since the scissors broke the day after I received them and they are dangerous to use without the closing mechanism (I cut myself today moving them)"

Balls in your court Fiskars Customer Service (I double checked and I did buy them from Fiskars official store)

Timelies all!

Sigh…things are not great here. Halfway through the flight back Mr. S had a meltdown. It doesn’t help that the flight was delayed over an hour. Last night he had a bigger meltdown for no apparent reason.

They’re supposed to start work on the drywall this week. Still haven’t seen any flooring samples yet.

It's a lot going on Sheryl.

Mr S's schedule has changed and his structure has changed and that can be a lot for a neurodivergent kid. Especially when there is a lot of things like noises, pressure changes, people , etc. The meltdown could have been just a cumulative effect of change, sensory overload, emotion, etc

I imagine both you and Gary are ready to meltdown with all the disruption too! I'm sorry that you have so much happening all at once.

My reservations are made, so now I just have to pack everything and close down the house. My neighbor guys bought the antifreeze fluid that they will pump into my pipes so they don't freeze over winter. I still have some debris to pick up outside, but it was too chilly for me today. I'll get my nephew to help.

The plan is to do the trip in three days so it is all daylight driving. 9 hours Friday (including charging time) to Harrisonburg, VA, then 10 hours Saturday to Savannah, GA, then an easy 8 hours to home. It is really only 22-23 hours of driving and the rest is chilling at charging stops. Just the 3 of us with Skinner and Scully as my travel companions.

Now to get serious about packing.

The plan is to do the trip in three days so it is all daylight driving.

That sounds sane, safe and sensible. I'm well past the days of Pushing Through, like my cross-country drive from Boston to Sacramento where we did the Nebraska to Reno leg straight through in 24 hours.

I try to build rest into my travel plans now because otherwise it takes days or a week to recover.

I just had an unpleasant realization. I'm a single parent again.

(This brought on by Matilda coming home sick with a fever today.)

I suppose that's true. Sorry she's not well.

I'm a single parent again.

Oh, the biggest hugs to you David.

Oh man David. That’s quite the realization. But you did a good job with it before and I have faith you’ll do a good job now. Even if it’s not a job you ever wanted.

Much much less of a realization but I got a Harry and David catalogue in the mail yesterday and realized I don’t have to buy my mom a Christmas present this year. Ouch.

I support taking time to drive. In trying to figure out my route down to Southern California after thanksgiving and think I’ll do three days. In theory I could do the first one in a day, but I’d end up driving through the mountains in the dark and no.

We bought a new (expensive) mattress for Tim's back,* and it's being delivered this morning. Fully stripping the bed and then wrangling the pillows, heated mattress pad, and fluffy comforter so they're out of the way was practically a workout!

*(Tim would like the record to show that I, too, have a bad back, and that my bad back will benefit from the new mattress as well.)