Kid Amnesiac

Non-hypothetical question of the day; pretend like this is a word problem in math class:

Given one house, two drivers, and two cars, solve for the following:

• Person A has to pick up Agotich 4 miles from house and get her to preschool by 9:00 a.m.
• Person B has to drive Simon to school by 8:30 a.m. and then go to doctor’s appointment because of new growth on face.(Probably a Keratoacanthoma, but he should be checked out due to being high risk for skin cancer. No link because…. yuck!)
• Person B also has to drop off car with gashed tire to auto repair shop.
• Person B ends up having an additional 2:50 p.m. appointment with a dermatologist for skin-cancer screening.
• Person A has to meet Simon at JCC for swim lesson at 4:00 p.m.
• Person A has to pick up Agotich from school at 12:45 p.m. and make 8-mile round trip drive to her apartment and back.
• Person A has 2:00 p.m. doctor’s appointment herself for sinus infection.
• Person A discovers at 11:00 a.m. that her symptoms have progressed into severe dizziness and she cannot drive.

Stumped? Here’s the solution:

• Person A cancels on Agotich; no school for her today.
• Person A cancels Simon’s swim lesson and has in-laws pick up Simon and spend day with him.
• Person A arranges for father to drive her to doctor.
• Person B takes a half-day off to manage two doctor’s visits and two trips to the automotive repair shop.

I’m always grateful to have family support, but some days I’m more mindful of it than others. Today we’d be hurting bad without their help. Even more so when you figure in that the dermatologist Matt got referred to is my cousin. (Total coincidence, but a serendipitous one.)

Next math problem: Given one sinus infection, one flat tire, one destroyed side mirror (car hit again last night while parked in front of house with flat tire), one new skin growth on face, one broken car door handle (don’t want to talk about it), one bad trip to the pediatric dentist (really don’t want to talk about it), and earlier injuries related to running and falling down stairs, how does one avoid a massive pity party?

Solution: One picks up the newspaper and reads that one’s veterinarian drove home after work on Friday, March 2, to find that tornadoes reduced his pre-Civil War house to matchsticks, left only a concrete slab where his barn once stood, killed four of his horses outright, and injured the other two so badly that the vet had to put them down himself. If my reading and math add up correctly, all my vet has left is his cat and his person.

That’ll offer some perspective. Still, 2012 is leaving a lot to be desired so far.