Paranoia

Today we got about 5 1/2 inches of snow.  Not a lot to some of my friends and in-laws who live in snow all winter, but it's a pretty big thing here.  I love it at the moment... the yard is a perfect white blanket of fluffiness.  The girls wanted to go play in it, but they're sick.  I might let them go out tomorrow, but only because they've been cooped up all week so far.

Unfortunately, the snow has caused me its share of anxiety this evening.

Let's start with Olivia, my precious drama queen.  She's a very whiny and needy little patient.  She's been running a fever for 4 days.  I took her to the doctor and she checked out OK... it must be a virus of some sort, but her ears and throat are fine, so we just have to wait it out.  Tonight she fell asleep on the couch about 5:30pm.  Every once in a while, she'd start getting upset in her sleep.  I thought maybe it was a fever dream or something.  Then she just flipped out.  I tried to get her to calm down and take some Tylenol, but she was fighting me and then told me her peepee hurt.  Great.  Lovely.  She's had UTIs in the past.  The last one was so bad that I actually had her in the van to go to the ER before she stopped screaming.  It would explain the mysterious fever, so my mind is spinning... Bill took the van.  The roads are crap.  I can't put all three kids in the truck and even if I could, I don't feel comfortable driving the truck in the snow, knowing how awful it was when I was driving home from work.  I was getting ready to call my sister to see if she could help me out in some way, when Olivia jumped up and ran to the bathroom.  She just had to pee really, really badly. 

Then I put the girls to bed and settled in the chair to read a bit while they fell asleep.  I was coming to the end of my chapter, ready to sneak out of the room, when an ambulance drove past.  My sister lives 4 houses down from me.  Earlier in the week, an ambulance came down the road and I ran outside to make sure it passed up her house.  I was about to do the same, but decided against it.  But then I couldn't concentrate anymore.  And then a second ambulance drove past.  I jumped up and put my shoes on and ran out to see where the ambulance was.  It was much closer than the ambulance earlier in the week.  Normally I have no problem picking out my sister's yard even in the dark because there is a road across the street from her driveway.  But with all the snow, I couldn't be certain where the road was and the ambulances were really close to where my sister's house should be.  So I had to text her to make sure she and her husband were not about to take a ride in the ambulance.  She said it was two houses over from her.  I felt a little silly, but I just had to be sure.

And the icing on the cake is that my husband is at work.  I tried to convince him not to go to work, but he went anyway.  He made it just fine there, but sometimes he has to go out on the road while he's at work, and he has to drive home in the morning.  So I get to worry until he comes home.  Aside from worrying about his physical safety, there's also the concern that he has the van - the family vehicle.  If it's wrecked, we have a  pretty big problem.  At least he can wait until daylight to leave... I'm off work tomorrow so I don't need him to get here at any particular time. 

All I can say is that for causing me to worry, if there is anything open in the morning, he needs to stop and get me a big coffee on his way home.  I broke the coffee pot Sunday, which hasn't been an issue since I don't drink any until I get to work during the week, but being off tomorrow, I'm looking at a coffee-less day.  And that's just no good for anyone.