Saturday, June 15, 2013

What REALLY happens when you're a pilot's wife

So let me give you my typical days around here.

 Before I go to work I clean/feed the horses, feed and let out dogs, this really doesn't take too long and including a shower I can be out the door in (if I push it) 45 min.

 I come home from work let dogs out, feed/clean cats, feed/clean horses.

 This in general leaves me little time to do anything else were talking 6am-7pm here, but I do try. So last Thursday I came home and cut the grass some, this was also my night to play "slumber party" at the hospital with my grandma (completely different post but she's not doing well and someone needs to stay with her pretty much 24-7). I come home from work Thursday follow my usual clean/feed routine, then trying to be a nice wife I start to cut the grass, more accurately I cut the grass that wasn't standing water from the rain, but I figure any little bit helps when you have 5 acres. Now DH is SUPPOSED to be home Thursday nights since he's working in the office BUT of course he's not some kind of blah blah blah about people timing out, he's in Hawaii.

 So I am done cutting the grass and I am bring the horses in before I head to the hospital, Hokus and I are jogging in together and something happens, I'm still not sure what, but we both go down in a terrific display of legs everywhere I tripped, he tripped it was awesome! Once I hit the ground I'm scream and swearing at the top of my lungs, as we all know I broke my foot a few months ago, and I was pretty sure I had just broke it again. This is when being a pilot's wife gets real.

 There I am swearing and crying my eyes out holding my foot which feels like some dropped an anvil on it, and what am I going to do? DH isn't home, I can't exactly call my parents as it's my moms night off and she really needs a night off she'd been up for about 3 days straight with my grandma.

 What are my options? I crawl across the barn (mind you the stall doors are still open horses are wandering around) to my phone (still bawling and swearing) I manage to get a hold of dh before they start the leg back to Hawaii, I can't hardly talk because I'm crying so hard, and for those of you who know me, for me to cry because of pain is really bad, in fact I can't remember the last time I cried because something hurt. The only thing dh keeps saying is he will call my parents/his parents someones parents, which won't work because I need to get to the hospital to babysit my grandma. So at this point I'm still crying but he's kind of pissing me off. What I really wanted to hear was "I'm really sorry I'm not there." I don't need him to fix the situation I just wanted someone to cry to, instead I get Mr.Fix It, and then I get "I'm sorry we're closing the door I gotta go."

 Anyway since I didn't have choice I managed to hop in the house, take a shower, change and get to the hospital to babysit my grandma. I put on my old boot from when I had broken my foot and then managed to take enough Vicodin to live through the next few days.

 My next days adventures included driving all over Chicago in the truck to get hay, and picking up my contacts, and picking up dh from ORD. So once I picked dh up I then finally made it to the ER! Where they took 3 x-rays and said "you need to go see the dr you were seeing so they can compare the x-rays....btw here's some more Vicodin, I can write you a note for work, and don't do anything for the next week."

Anyway the whole situation made me really think, we pilot wives really are on our own when our hubbies are gone. The whole situation really kind of ticked/ticks me off, I REALLY could have used dh being home that night. Was it absolutely necessary?  No, I did manage by myself, but doing everything yourself gets old and to be honest I'm still a little ticked at him for being gone even though it's not his fault.

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Being Grateful

As all my pilot wives know, bad things happend when the pilot is away, it doesn't matter how hard you try to avoid it shit happens

But this week its been interesting, the shoe has been on the other foot as they say.  I have been crazy busy with the new job and during the week it's all I can do to keep up with the work around the house (remember the 5 acres and horses) and going to work.  So this last weekend when dh was home I had to work Saturday (thankfully it's only one saturday a month).  I came home and was pleasantly surprised that dh (and the fence guys) had finished the run outs for the horses!  He had spent most of the day working on varouis outside barn type projects.  As I was walking around listening to him talk about everything he had done I realized " this is what I do all the time when you're gone."  He had (selflessly) spent the day working on something I wanted done, even though he had  a ton of work to do.  I was incredibly grateful.

Poor dh could not catch a break though....I woke up sunday mornng sick.  I don't mean functional sick, I mean pitching a tent in the bathroom sick (I think food poisoning).  I manged to let the dogs out but that was it.  I finally passed out about 9am.  I woke up at 11:30 just in time to see dh's dad pull in to pick him up to play a well deserved round of golf.  So I quickly go on the hunt for dh, he's just leaving the barn.  He had cleaned the stalls, turned the horses out and moved one of the huge water tubs in the field.  Again I was so appreciative he had done all this!

The whole shoe on the other foot situation got me thinking.....I was/am so grateful that dh had stepped up and helped me out either because I was at work or I was sick.  I really wonder if he thinks like this when he is at work and when I do everything around here while he is gone, or if he just has come to expect it?  While I don't know the answer to that question, I do feel bad he has had to help out so much this weekend because he has a couple of really big projects at work this week and a PC, so I'll be sending him good thoughts all week!