This Ain't Narnia

Kindness. Mahalo for your emails and comments, wondering where I have been. I have not left Bloggyland. NO. But I do feel that I have slipped through the wardrobe, just like the children in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, ever so quickly. I landed in a place I find oddly familiar, quite beautiful, and still so different from what I know as "home." Hubs is adjusting to a new job, and working on getting our house ready from the time he leaves work until the day is over. Still many, many responsibilities fall to me, and I am dragging two small children along on this adventure. Except this adventure is tiresome and leaves little time for me to sit down and share it with you.

Last night the kids and I drove back to the hotel in my car. The car arrived from Hawaii, and yesterday was the first day I had it to myself. We drove down Hawthorne Street in San Diego. For those of you unfamiliar, the street is a straight decent and ends at the harbor, at North Harbor Drive. I sat at a red light on Hawthorne, crafting a plan for unloading the kids, hauling our clean laundry, and grabbing dinner for the family. The light flashed green. My foot pressed on the gas but I went nowhere. The engine did not rev. The needle on the odometer sat at 0 mph, completely unaware I was pressing the gas pedal.

I am not sure what happened, or how the car started to roll. But I kept staring in disbelief at the green "D." My car was in drive. I was not in neutral. I braced myself as we careened down the hill. I called out to Son1. I instructed him to pray that mommy could stop the car. He asked God to bless the food to our bodies. Good enough. I am sure God understood his prayer. Cars were parked all the way down Hawthorne. There was no place to pull over. At the very last light before the harbor, I saw an opening where I could hit a soft curb and pull my emergency brake. I should have known. No parked cars at a driveway opening to a restaurant. Yes, I blocked the driveway.

I dialed Hubs. I begged him to rescue me. He was still at our new house, supervising stone workers. I was hysterical. Not crying, but hysterical. Put the car in D2 or D3 he said. NO NO NO. I reminded him I was one light from the water. NO. I would have no way to stop. And North Harbor is a major road that leads to the airport along the harbor. NO. I had two small children in the car. I told him to RESCUE ME RIGHT NOW.

Now, let me tell you about Hubs. He is the complete antithesis of me. He is as calm as still waters. Nothing moves that man. "First of all, put your car in Park." Very steadily he told me to turn off my car. Ok, I could handle that. He directed me to turn the car on. Next, reverse into the restaurant parking lot. YIPPEEE!!! My car accelerated! Then, he calmly led me to put my car in drive. WOOOO HOOO! My car was moving again! I headed to the hotel, praying at every red light my car would not stall.

I eventually arrived at the hotel, only to find I lost my room key, after dragging a gargantuan bag of clean laundry, my kids, and all of our necessities with us to the room. I will skip the craziness of juggling all of the above, and dinner for Hubs with a new room key, back to the hotel room, nearly an hour and a half later. This ain't Narnia. It is a completely different kind of "adventure." But I keep telling Son1 this is an adventure. Because we have had crazy days like this all too frequently.

We are running to our next adventure this morning: driving my car with 55,000 miles to the dealership. Craziness, I know. A transmission should not give out yet, especially on a Honda. But I will be back, with more stories, just so you don't get worried I didn't make it to the dealership. Deal?

And NO I am not done blogging Hawaii. So thefarmerfiles will be Lost on Oahu for awhile. Don't you want to know how the Survivors of the Farmerfiles made it off the island??? You have to be a LOST fan to get that one. ;)