all before 10 am

this morning, 6:30 i roll over and notice that j is not in bed.  
hasn't been gone long because the pillow is still warm.  
i sit there, pondering getting up or going back to sleep when he returns.  

"we have a problem." my heart stops. 

i think its his toe (broken nail - infected - nasty stuff). 

he walks to the window and i realize that's not it.  

"our ac is out". commence heart stoppage again.  
its the hottest day of the year in Kansas - 115. 
worst day for news like this.  

worst.day.ever. 

i look at my alarm clock.  

its 82 degrees in my bedroom. 

at 6:30 in the am.  

the sun is beginning to shine over the horizon, so we need to get our butts in gear. 

 in short order we shower, get dressed, wake up ains, and start to get rolling.  

when i get downstairs i freeze again.  
what are we going to do with maggie? 
 she can't stay in her crate.  there is no ac. 
 she can't stay in the yard.  its 115 degrees!
she can't realistically go to work with either of us.  

with no plan, i throw her and ains in the car and rush toward day care.  

unload ains, who's excited cause she gets to have breakfast with 'all her kids', 

rush back to the car and head to j's church to switch cars. 

(guess who's going to be in lawrence all day and all night?)

maggie and i head inside j's church - which is serving as a polling place on this primary election day.  
i can't leave her in the car so we struggle into the office  - her super excited, me super frustrated. 
we lock ourselves in j's office and assess our choices.  
j has called the ac people and they'll be over this afternoon.  
if its something simple they can handle it on the spot, if not...

with that taken care of the final decision is maggie.  

if she says with either of us we're not going to get any work done. 

she'll be hovering and whining. 

j has planning meetings with some elderly parishioners.

i am in meetings back to back from 1 pm till 8 pm. 

 not good options.  

then the light bulb - TADA! 
down the street from our home is a doggie day care.  
one quick call of explanation and they are happy to accommodate us.  

so i drag maggie back to the car, 

drive all the way back to our house,

then head to the doggie day care.  

in the 5 minute process of dropping her off,  maggie steps on my foot three times, 

jerks me off my feet once,  jumps on the counter at the front desk twice, 

and nearly bowls over the  young man who comes to take her off my hands. 

 5 minutes. 

it is now about 8:15.  
i realize i will pass by my polling place on the way to work 
(honestly i've passed it twice already but now there's not a 75 lb lab and a 2 year old with me).   
i make my way to the central baptist seminary (!) 
and vote for the first time as a resident of kansas.  
(four of my ten options on the ballot were empty because there are no dems running for those local positions.) 

then i take a deep breath and cross the street

 and head to the starbucks for my well deserved iced chai latte.   

because if, 

as the radio, tv, and mailings keep telling me, 

i am a democratic primary voting, npr listening, over educated, privileged liberal elite then i'm going to take my spoils and run.   

so take that, worst morning in a long, long time! 
 i have to go and write a sermon on colossians.

did i mention this might be the worst day ever?  :).