DIARY

Friday morning, and for a late February day it’s already much warmer than it ought to be. Highs today and through the weekend will climb into the 70s. The roses are budding, the bulbs are pushing shoots out of the ground, and spring is threatening. It’s too early–we’re at least a couple of weeks ahead of schedule, if not more, and a cold snap could bring a lot of heartache. March snow is a real thing in North Carolina, even if we’re all but sunbathing ten days after Valentine’s.

Kelly is in Las Vegas for a meat-up, and yesterday and today I’ve woken up early to play varsity parent. There’s a lot to do on a regular school day: breakfasts, lunches, puppies, hair, packing, drop-off. The kids are very helpful. This morning I put in Annie’s earring after I accidentally tugged it out while brushing her hair. It occurred to me I’d never once poked an earring through her ear. She was a good sport about it.

Not only am I parenting solo, but Kel’s minivan went into the shop this week to get a nose job (read: new bumper to replace the one that got a hole in it when she got into a bump-up almost a year ago in Hickory). While the minivan was in Franklin for repairs, Kel was driving my car, and I’ve been driving Woodrow the Wagoneer.

This is only the second time I’ve had to lean on it as a daily driver. The first time was back in Statesville when my car had to go in for body work. (For posterity’s sake: I was driving to UNC-Charlotte for class, and a piece of metal fell off a car in front of me on I-77, and I sort of ran over it, and it swung back up and scraped the side of the car. Had I told the insurance company that it fell out of the air and hit my car, they’d have covered everything. Alas.) Anyway, that particular time, Woodrow made it several faithful days before the upper radiator hose sprung a pin-hole sized leak that quickly began venting antifreeze across the top of the car. I had to replace the hose and the thermostat, but it’s been solid since.

This week, Woodrow has treated us well, and we saw the odometer flip to 203,000 miles. It’s old and slow and smelly, but it still gets waves and thumbs-up from folks on the road. Today I dropped the kids at Fairview, and on the drive down 107 to the university, I kept the window down. The temps were in the low 50s, and fog shrouded the mountains until I came to Catamount Gap, where suddenly it lifted. The sun pushed through the trees, and the valley was filled with light. The heavy engine hummed along, and all was well.