Liberation on all fronts!

It is finally Thursday, January 22nd. Finally the washer guy was scheduled to come to our house sometime between the hours of 8 and 12. Hallelujah. For those who had the image that Miriam's clothes were getting moldy sitting in gross water for the past week and a half, please let me clear up the misconception. The fatal door lock occurred before any water was let into the wash drum. The clothes were fine and dry, just dirty and locked in the washer. So here's how it went down. Last night Miriam was coughing and had a scratchy voice. She thought it was pretty funny, but ended up coughing quite a bit throughout the night. She woke up about 4:30 and was definately sick. She struggled to breathe, coughed every time she took a deepish breath, and choked herself awake anytime she did get to sleep. It just kept getting worse and worse and worse until I honestly wondered if she was getting any oxygen at all. I called the doctor to see if they could fit us in today and she set an appointment for 10:20. Great for Miriam's health, not so great for Miriam's clothes. I called the Sears repair place where, after some explanation and waiting, the repair guy called me back and said that we were pretty far down the list and he probably wouldn't get there til after noon. So far so good. We headed into the doctor's, where after a few stethoscope listens to her breathing it was decreed that she did indeed have the croup and needed a steroid mist for 20 minutes followed by a three hour "watching period" where they could see if the steroid mist would help for the long term or if they needed to do something else for my poor little girl. So I called Brent who said he could come home for lunch if the Sears guy called and we got the steroid mist in a face mask thing, the entire time Miriam was yelling "Mimi house please!" over and over with tears pouring out of her eyes. Add that trauma to her already fever-stricken and chafed face and she looked pretty pathetic. Poor little girl. She was simply miserable. After the treatment was over and we were in the waiting phase, I asked if I could take her home and just bring her back in three hours, but that wasn't good enough. We moved to a chair in the waiting room where were sitting by the fish tank and could see the television and Miriam finally calmed down. I can't remember the last time where she sat so placidly on my lap for so long. It was nice, but made me realize how terrible she must feel. Anyway, after getting her breathing listened to every half hour for a long long long long time, the doctor told me that the nurse who was helping us had to take her own daughter to the doctor and he had some errands to run. So they were going to head out for a little but they'd be back before our waiting time was done. Sure, THEY can leave and come back but we can't?!? ARGH! Anyway, to make a really really really long story a little bit shorter, the steroid mist seemed to work great on Miriam. Every few minutes she'd get more energy and be more herself. When she asked for fries (after denying any sort of caloric offerings all morning), I knew she was swinging in the right direction. Being at the office, all we had was a vending machine so she took Cheetos as a consolation prize. The doctor finally came back and cleared us for takeoff, telling us that the croup is always worse at night and she'd probably have another night or two of rough times. Got it. When we finally got to the car, it was 2:30, an entire FOUR AND A HALF STINKING HOURS since we had left our house. Still I imagined that our finally leaving the office was comparable to those clothes finally getting out of the washer... THE CLOTHES! I had forgotten! Once I got home and Miriam set up comfortable with an Elmo movie, I called Brent. No Sears guy. No call. No free clothes. It was after 3 by this time and I was a bit discouraged but decided to just not worry about it. I'd taken care of enough today. Then at 4:30, Jack from the Sears Repair Center called and said he was on his way! HOORAY! He opened the washer door and showed us how to do it through the top panel. He diagnosed that it was merely a power surge that had put the electronic portion of the washer on hold and told us to get a good surge protector so it wouldn't happen again. After looking at our paperwork he said that we were still under the warranty time, so the whole thing cost us absolutely nothing unless you count the week and a half that we were washerless. Which I don't because I didn't have to pay any real money. So Jack saved the washer and the doctor saved Miriam and both Miriam and I made it out of the doctor's office finally and all of Miriam's clothes made it out of the washer finally and are nicely folded on the table (look! socks that fit! pajamas that don't stretch at the neck when we put them on!) waiting to be put away tomorrow after Miriam gets up. After sleeping in late, I hope. It's not July, but I'd like to wish everybody a very Happy Independence Day!