A funny story, a concert, more pictures, this should probably be more than one post...

Well, it was quite a day. But it's late, so you're getting the short version. Not that I've written the long version of anything in this space for quite some time. I'm looking forward to things settling down to the point where I start writing about grammar and stupid ways to die again.

Our story begins this morning, when I was driving Toby to his grandma's on my way to work. I was in an exit lane behind a van which didn't want to exit. Said van was taking a little longer than I would have liked to vacate my lane, so I started to drift out onto the shoulder a little bit and...holy crap there's a van parked on the shoulder! Swerve back into lane behind slow-moving van to avoid non-moving van, fishtail, steer away from traffic, slide smoothly into snowy ditch. Deep breath.

Toby was quite amused by our little ride, and to be honest, I couldn't help but be as well. He laughed merrily as I futilely tried to drive back up the slippery slope again. Eventually I had to get out and flag down someone who owned a cell phone. Fortunately, I am the only person left in Minnesota without one. I know this because I look at other drivers. When I see one who isn't talking on a cell phone, we look at each other in surprise. You neither?

With help on the way, I trudged back to the car and found it locked. Still running, with Toby inside, locked. It's one of those kinds that locks the doors as soon as you hit one mile per hour. I don't know, maybe it slid a little. At any rate, there was no getting in, so I just tried to laugh about it and walked around to Toby's window. He was grinning warmly at me and sipping his milk. I smiled back and pointed at the door lock. "Hey Toby! See that button? Can you push that button?" Toby laughed and tapped the window where I was tapping it. "No, further down! The button! Can you push the button?" I wasn't really optimistic about this plan. Triple A was on the way and they would be able to solve this problem. Really I was just trying to amuse Toby while we waited. I gave up for a while and just made faces at him, but eventually resumed the effort. "The button! Button! Push!" This time he began kicking his feet at the door. Hope soared in my heart. "Yeah! That's it! Kick the button!"

Click. The kid actually did it.

Yank open the door. "Toby, you are the best boy in the world!" Unlock the front door, run around to it, jump in. It was warm in there.

Grandpa arrived a few minutes later, then the tow truck. We were on our way without further mishap.

Okay, that was the long version.

Tonight I saw POD at Three Degrees with Jeff. They were good. The pleasant surprise was that Project 86 opened. They were better.

In between, I saw Michelle and Alicia, of course. They are both doing well. I took more pictures, but blogger doesn't want to upload them right now, which is just as well because I want to go to bed. Alicia was breathing on her own, with a mask to give her extra oxygen but no ventilator. She's coming along very well, and will likely drink milk in a couple days (from a bottle, or perhaps an eyedropper).

Michelle comes home tomorrow.