It’s the End of the World

Who else is singing R.E.M. in their head?  So just me then?

Photo credit: Bernt Rostad

I’m really starting to believe all the hype about the world ending this year.  How many signs do I really need anyway?  I can’t even go into half the stuff that has happened this year, but I think the following list should stand on its own as conclusive evidence:

• We found out that Nerdguy needs major back surgery, and the wait-list just to get a cortisone shot to help with some of the pain is 6-12 months.  Although that may be good luck, considering that the people getting the shots in the U.S. are dropping like flies from meningitis.

• Within half an hour of arriving at our vacation home in Pennsylvania this summer, the kids stepped in a wasp nest, and 4 of us were stung multiple times.  The real fun began when Maggie swelled up like a balloon a week later, and the doctors said she is likely allergic and has to carry an epi-pen.

• Maggie was stung again at school, and had to go by ambulance to the hospital after having her epi shot.  The sting was 2 hours before she was due to be picked up for her teacher visit at the public school.  The good news is that she was fine and loved the ambulance ride.  I had one family member in one ward of the hospital, while I had my daughter in the ER.  They still didn’t validate my parking.  Or name a wing after our family.

• Two weeks ago, while Nerdguy was out of town for work, and I had Molly home sick (after she was stung by a wasp at school, and had tummy issues after for 3 days), we discovered we had a wasp nest in the walls of our kitchen.  Every time I killed one, another would fly out at me and seem like it was after me.  After killing 10 in less than an hour I called the exterminator, who sprayed.  I had to take the kids to a hotel for the night, grocery shop, and pack lunches from the hotel.  Like a member of the Trump family.  Or the opposite of that.  Nerdguy was supposed to get home that night, so I got a 2 bedroom suite.  The moment we got settled in, he texted me that he wasn’t going to make it back that night.  His loss.  Our hotel was sweet!  The kids cried when I said we couldn’t stay a second night.

• We got a call that my aunt’s dentures are broken.  She is in a nursing home, has Parkinson’s and a developmental disability.  That’s just what the lady needs is to have to send her teeth out to be fixed.  So we’re in a bit of a scramble trying to figure out those logistics.

• I’ve told you all about the family member who is in the hospital.  I prayed for her in church a couple of weeks ago, came out and there was a text that she was at the hospital.  Very funny God.  Today, at church I asked people to pray for her, because honestly I am at a loss of what to do.  The minister asked for prayers and celebrations and it felt like I just had to raise my hand.  I was so upset afterward, but I was hoping that it will help.  The wonderful ladies there gave me a prayer shawl to take home to give me comfort, which was so unexpected.  Somewhere around this time, the companion of the family member in the hospital was pulling out of his own church parking lot, in my family member’s car, when a lady ran a red light and slammed into him. It really is a miracle that he wasn’t hurt worse, and I am so glad that he is okay.  The car is likely a write-off.  Every air-bag went off.  All I can think is this:  REALLY God?  He was leaving a church parking lot.  That is just not good advertising.

• Hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis ..I have to admit I am feeling very nervous about the weather.  And I don’t even live on a coast.  But I have a lot of friends that do.  And you would think that living in Southern Ontario would exempt us from hurricanes, but apparently we are right in the line of fire too.  I don’t know why I am surprised though…the house I grew up in was supposedly on a fault-line. In Ontario.  And the first year we lived in Ottawa was 1998.  The year of the ice storm.  They gave out inserts in the paper declaring we ‘survived the ice storm.’  That is also not good advertising.