Odds and Ends

Yesterday I babysat my two-year-old granddaughter. Nothing surprising there because I try to do this one time a week. My son works 7:00 - 4:00 shift and my daughter-in-law works 1:00 - 10:00 shift, normally. I usually watch the kid from 12:00 - 5:00. Yesterday was different though. My daughter-in-law was scheduled 8:00 to 5:00 for some type of training so the babysitting gig was a longer day.

I knew one thing was going to happen to displease me yesterday, and I suspected one other thing to displease my daughter-in-law. I was right on both counts.

We'll start with what I suspected first. I called my son on Thursday night to let him know I was 'illen. I figured I'd give them the option to take the granddaughter to their regular day care provider if they didn't want a sickly grandparent around the kid. I told him I didn't care myself and that I could feel miserable at home or at their place equally. The granddaughter is easy to watch, so me being sick wouldn't be a hardship.

When the daughter-in-law answered the door yesterday morning to see me standing there I knew someone was in trouble. Not me, but my son. Her first words were, "Hi... say you don't look so good." Her second question was, "How long have you been standing out here?" The next thing she uttered was, "Are you sick?"

My answers were thanks, not too long, and yes, didn't Jon tell you? My daughter-in-law is a sweet girl. She's easy going, even tempered, and sensible. Yesterday morning I'd have to add a tad upset in the mix though. Apparently my son failed to inform her of my phone call from the day before giving them the option to avoid a sick grandparent showing up to infect them with a winter cold. I'm pretty sure my son was going to get his ass chewed out last night when she got home from work.

I have to admit I felt miserable yesterday. Hell I'm not feeling too chipper today, but I still plan on going to work to spread the lack of chipper to my boss and co-worker. I'm thoughtful like that, naturally. After all why confine the "it's better to give, than receive" nonsense only to Christmas, right?

Now on to my displeasure.

My daughter-in-law isn't a morning person. She's still sweet and easy going. What I mean is that this girl is a sleeper. She likes to sleep in and getting up at what I guess is 6:30 in the morning isn't what she wants to do. I knew she wasn't going to get up any earlier than absolutely necessary to get to work in time yesterday. This doesn't mesh well with how I approach things. I'm an early person who hates to be late, so I give myself plenty of time to get to where I'm going. I tried to temper this yesterday though.

Apparently not enough tempering on my part. I still stood outside their door, in the cold, for almost 10 minutes because when she's in the bathroom, which apparently also serves as a sound proof room, she hears nothing. I'm pretty sure I hid my displeasure well, despite the onset of frostbite. I also had to reason with myself that my car was a warm haven that I could have retreated to as well to wait for the door opening ceremony. My fault for being either too stupid or lazy to do this.

I muddled through the day, tried not to breathe on the granddaughter, and fled for home soon after my son got home from work. The one thing I didn't do was give my son a heads up to his wife's displeasure with him. I dunno, maybe I was feeling a little mean spirited due to this damn cold. The other possibility is why spoil a surprise?