How lucky am I

I woke up to plow some snow just before 2:00 this morning.  Plowed hard and fast to try and get done so I could spend some time playin with Alexi today.  I plowed 10 parking lots in 5 hours, for those who don't know snow removal, that's pretty darn good if I do say so myself!  Then the wheels fell off my truck.

You read that right, the 2 dually wheels (rear wheels) on the driver's side, just plain fell off the truck in a parking lot right as I finished plowing and salting it.  Sheared the wheel studs clean off.  Took it "with a grain of salt" or with 2 tons of rock salt I still had loaded in my bed, and thought well my day sure wont get any worse, time to get it fixed.

I called my lovely wife and had her come to rescue me.  She called back.  She started the car, but the keys are now locked in it, while it's running.  Great.  Luckily I was waiting for her in the only place that was open near by, Giant Eagle (our 24hr grocery store) and ran into our neighbor.  She offered me her truck for the day as long as I returned it by 2:30 for her to go home from work.  "No problem!"

So I drove home and busted out my MacGyver breaking into cars kit (cuz we all have one of those!)  Turns out, a few screw drivers, a coat hanger and a (possibly antique) spanish fencing sword later...the car is in some sort of anti-theft mode and the door unlock buttons inside the car are disengaged!  Awesome, so we call AAA to come break in, and the car runs out of fuel while we're calling.  So we order 1 "lockout service" with 3 complimentary gallons of fuel (included in our membership.)  At least it's all gonna get better from here. 

 An hour goes by and the AAA guy shows up and unlocks the car!  Things are starting to turn!  "Fuel?  I don't carry fuel in this truck."  Oh fiddlesticks. (not the actual word choice I had in mind.)  Now we place another call to AAA and they send the same guy back, in the same truck, but with fuel this time....2 hours later.  Awesome.  In the mean time a good friend had picked me up the wheel studs I needed and we loaded up my neighbors truck with tools and went to fix the dump.

Kerith calls, and informs me that the car died about 300 feet from home.  Turns out it was never out of fuel, but the alternator went while it was warming up in the first place.  Yippy!  Okay, I promise this will get better.

So another neighbor who we've never met stops and jumps Kerith's car, which gives her just enough juice to get it back home.  *whew*  Her and Alexi are home safe.

At this point I have started fixing my truck, but realize that when you order wheel studs, they don't come with the lug nuts which are kind of necessary to hold the wheels on.  So my brother comes to the rescue this time and is able to bring me the lug nuts.  I go to put the wheels on the newly fastened wheel studs, and the 3 ton jack doesn't lift my dump truck loaded with 2 tons of salt high enough.  I look to my buddy who came to help out in the first place, hand him a big pipe, and say "you're not gonna believe what I'm gonna ask you to do."

He looks a bit stunned and explains that he really hopes we aren't thinking the same thing.  But I politely asked if he could lift my dumptruck up with that bar.  Time for a math break.  We have a 9,500 lb truck, with a 2,500 lb plow on it, and a 600 lb salter.  That's 12,600 lbs.  Then we have 2 tons of salt in the bed, so add another 4k and we have 16,600 lbs of truck.  Sure it's got 3 points of contact on the ground, but that's alot of weight for a 3 ton jack and 1 guy to lift.  Sure enough, it worked.  Got the wheels on just in time for my bro to show up with the lug nuts and got it all bolted back together.

Came home.

Got cleaned up.

Picked up Alexi and sat on the couch and asked Kerith what kind of "junk" I could have for dinner.  She knew I meant I wanted something unhealthy and good.  In between Alexi's high pitched squeals of laughter, I could hear the voice of an angle reply,  "chilidogs."

I am the luckiest man alive.

Instantly I felt lucky to be me, I have some incredible neighbors, even better friends, and family that makes anything the world throws my way go away with just a few moments of laughter, and some sweet sweet words of comfort. 

(Photo courtesy of post plowing nap time yesterday.)

PS  I finished fixing the truck at 2:07 and handed my neighbor her keys at 2:12.  Had 18 minutes to spare!!!

PPS  I couldn't help but think, quite a few times, why me? what did I do to deserve all this today?  Once I got home I knew, I didn't do anything to "deserve it," I'm just better prepared to deal with it!   I mean not everyone has the little "extra something" I have in my life that can completely distract me from even the most hectic of days!  "Got 47?"  You can't see it, but that's what Alexi's sweatshirt says.  (Thanks Gina!!)

So why bore you with all of this?  Well sorry if I did!  But I had a point, it's kind of the point of this whole "Designer Genes" blog.  The reason I started sharing our lives was to show anyone wanted to see, that raising a child with DS is not only something that shouldn't be feared, but it rocks!  This was a crappy day to say the least, but my daughter, Alexi, was the BRIGHT (and you know I mean really super awesome bright because it's in all caps) shining light at the end of the tunnel, that makes any care in the world all but disappear. Oh, and she has Down Syndrome.

It was that time of year again, Atlantic City Pool and Spa Show, YAY!!  #sarcasm

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy getting to travel once or twice a year for work, and enjoy even more that my wife and daughter get to join, and even MORE that we get to see the "Philly family" while we're out there.  It's just usually some boring classes and a bunch of the same stuff at the show, with lots to do and not much "down time."

This year was awesome.  Went out a day early and Alexi got to see lots of her cousins out there (we were missing you Charlotte and Hanna!!)  As always she had a blast watching the boys play, and even started to join in this time!  They brought her lots of fun toys and hardly rough housed with her at all.  She also got some awesome quality girl time with her cousin, Rylan, and got to show everyone her new crawling skills!

We kept pretty busy and got lots accomplished at the show this year and Alexi had a blast doing it!  She was up all day "walking" around the show, meeting people.  Immediately following the show, we had a happy hour party put on by our favorite liner company, and Alexi got to go!  Turns out she loves cocktails parties already!!  After that we went out to dinner with one of our distributors and she just refused to miss a beat!  We tried napping so many times, but she wanted nothing to do with it, she knew there was a party going on and just had to be a part of it.  That was a long day to say the least!  I guess that's why she passed out so easily back at the room, no matter how uncomfortable she looked.

We went back in to the show the following day to talk to a few more people and walked passed a massage station.  Kerith asked if I was interested in the free massage, I declined, as I really wanted to get done and get on the road.  She tapped me on the shoulder and asked, "Are you sure?" while pointing over to the booth.

There was a beautiful young girl working the booth who had a little "something extra" about her!  It's amazing how quickly my opinion of that booth's significance changed.  We walked over with Alexi and introduced ourselves, and immediately the girl's step mother came walking up to us with a big smile on her face (looking at Alexi of course.)  Yet another example of the instant bond we share with some of the families we meet, on a journey like ours.  We talked for a while and it was awesome to meet them.  She is 17, loves school, and was not afraid to tell me all about it.  She was a social butterfly, just like Alexi is becoming.  After talking to her for a while, I couldn't help but notice how articulate she was.  Her dad, who was in the middle of giving a free massage, said they started oral motor exercises at 2 months old and they really paid off!  We haven't been in contact with the family yet, so for now I'm not sure if they want their names shared, but it was great meeting them!  All in all this was by far our best AC pool show yet, and I can't help but notice this is a trend, everything we do with Alexi, is the best it's ever been.