About yesterday...

As you will remember, I had a great "day off" planned for myself yesterday with a Sopranos marathon. I am slowly but surely working my way through this series but it’s hard because this is one of the few shows (the other being Jersey Shore) that I won’t watch with the girls around. So I was coming to the end of an episode and trying to figure out if I had enough time to watch one more episode before The Wife and the girls got home when I received a phone call. It was The Wife calling to tell me she was in an accident and she needed me to come to her (on Ladson Road). Of course, my first response was “Are you ok?” and “Is Daniel ok?”. She said yes to both. You will be proud (and perhaps somewhat surprised) that my next question was not “So why the hell do you need me to come out to you?” Before you get all mad at me, let me first point out that I did not say that to her. Let me also point out that to get to where she was, I had to drive by her and then circle around and come back on the correct side of Ladson Road. During rush hour... which was even worse because (if you haven’t been following) there was an accident. But I didn’t say anything, I just told her not to worry... I was on my way. So I left and after driving about 30 minutes to get to a point that really wasn’t all that far from my house, I arrived at where The Wife was. I will skip the details here except to say that I was very loving and understanding and told her not to worry about anything and we’d be ok and so on and so forth and all that other crap that they say husbands should say in situations like that. She then asked me if I thought she should call the doctor. She didn’t feel bad and she thought Daniel was ok, but I still thought she should give the doctor a call. So she called and the doctor (who was on call at the hospital) said (and I quote) “Yeah, just come on in to the hospital and I’ll take a quick look at him to make sure everything is ok”. So after taking her van home (I drove it... which again went against my impulse to drive my own car so she wouldn’t mess it up) we got in the Kia and went to The Hospital.

You may remember that I have not had what you might call “good interactions” with The Hospital. I don’t like them and it’s becoming clearer and clearer that they don’t like me. But I’m getting ahead of myself. We got to The Hospital about 6:00 for our “quick visit” and The Wife gave me a hard time for bringing a book in with me. “We aren’t going to be here that long,” she said. I laughed a hearty laugh and thought “Oh to be so young and naïve”. So we got up to the second floor and they gave The Wife a gown to put on and started doing paperwork. I sat and read my book with a smirk on my face as I watched The Wife realize they were admitting her. Friends, I was very nice at The Accident... but the more I was in The Hospital, the worse my mood was getting. Let me take a second here to point out that the room we were in had a glider (or whatever you call those rocking chair-like chairs) and a regular ol’ chair (and of course a bed). No chair in there that even reclined. To me, this was The Hospital “taking the gloves off”. This was like in Star Wars when the Emperor got rid of the Imperial Senate. The Hospital was saying “We aren’t even going to pretend we want you here”. I will consider this the first shot being fired in our third major war with The Hospital. Big deal, you’re saying... it’s not like you were going to be there that long. Well, they hooked The Wife up to a machine that was set to find a reason for them to keep her overnight and the doctor came in to give us the news (“We need you to stay overnight so we can monitor the baby”) around 7:45pm. Oh, I almost forgot a great part of the paperwork filling out process (mind you, they were getting a lot of the paperwork out of the way for when we come back to have the baby). Nurse: “Will anyone be at home to help you when you take the baby home?” The Wife: “Yes, him” (looking at me) “Um... the daddy”. Me: “Uh, your husband?” The Wife: “Yes... my husband”.

Anyway, I won’t bother you with the details from the rest of my night except to say that I had to go home last night to get some stuff for The Wife and then take it back to the hospital for her and then go back home and clean up the huge pile of dog crap that her dog (aka “Donkey” aka “Doo Doo” [Susie calls him that]) left for me on the floor and then after cleaning up the house and making sure the girls were ok I was able to get a couple hours sleep before I had to get up, get dressed, get the girls dressed, take the girls to day care, drive to the hospital to pick The Wife up and take her back home and THEN I had to go in to work.

The Mother-In-Law did help by picking up the girls and having them in bed by the time I got home. The Wife had contractions at The Hospital but they gave her something to keep Daniel in there a little while longer (perhaps this was some kind of peace offering from them to me since I’m pretty sure I made it clear when I was leaving there that Winthrop’s last home basketball game is this Saturday and I plan on going to it).

So that was my day yesterday. Hope you had a better one...

Winthrop Update: The Eagles host Liberty on Thursday.

Know Your Medal of Honor Recipients:

Private Otto Boehler (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on May 16, 1899 near San Isidro, Philippine Islands. His citation reads:

With 21 other scouts charged across a burning bridge, under heavy fire, and completely routed 600 of the enemy who were entrenched in a strongly fortified position.

Second Lieutenant Peter M. Boehm (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on March 31, 1865 at Dinwiddie Courthouse, Virginia. His citation reads:

While acting as aide to General Custer, took a flag from the hands of color bearer, rode in front of a line that was being driven back and, under a heavy fire, rallied the men, re-formed the line, and repulsed the charge.

Seaman Edward William Boers (US Navy) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on July 21, 1905 while on board the USS Bennington. His citation reads:

On board the U.S.S. Bennington, 21 July 1905. Following the explosion of a boiler of that vessel, Boers displayed extraordinary heroism in the resulting action.