Rocket Ships and Such

I am a pretty particular person. Nice alliteration, right? I don't know if this quality is a good or less-than-desirable one. Sometimes it can be both.

But I am getting distracted.

Back to my story...

Way back when in November 2011 Paul went to Calgary in my van to help his sister move. He took the van since it is more economical than the truck. Which was fine by me. Or so I thought. He came home, put the van in the garage (oh, I am remembering those fantastic days when the garage wasn't such a sty and the van could easily fit in the garage) and came in to see us. Which is exactly what he should have done.

Well.

I got in the van the next morning. I drove it out of the garage, and had to put the defrost on. And..... crack!!!! (You knew that was coming, didn't you)? Two terrible cracks in my windshield. All along the bottom of my windshield. Argh!!! I was not happy! That is irrepairable! How dare he go to Cowtown and wreck my van! I even thought: Well, that figures. That's what you get when you go to Calgary. I know, I know, it is terrible. It is just hard to get the 1980's die-hard Oiler fan/battle of Alberta/ anyone-but-Calgary mentality out of this girl.

And yes. The cracks are at the very bottom. They are not in my line of sight at all. But I see them. Every. Single. time I get in the van. And they bother me!

I got three more little rock chips in my windshield. And I wanted them fixed because I didn't want them to spread, but I didn't see the point. I mean really. The van's windshield was already ruined because he went to Calgary. Why bother? But, I didn't want couldn't afford to spend $400 on a new windshield that was cracked in spots that didn't impede my vision. And I *did not* want the windshield to get any worse so I went to get the chips filled. I had the girls with me and we went to do the deed. But, since we had been dowsed by a thunder storm getting there, they suggested the repair might not work well if there was water in them. That meant I had to come back another day.

Which I did. But I didn't have Oldest and Middle. Youngest and Boy were with me, since it was during the day. And the rock chips were repaired. Sort-of-happy day. I mean, how happy could I really be considering the windshield is still cracked?!

A couple days later I had the girlies and Boy in the van with me. Middle, out of no where, asked, "Mum, how are the rocket ships?"
To which I replied, "What?!"
And she asked again, "Did the rocket ships get fixed?"
And I said," I don't know. Are we talking about Chris Hadfield?"(another post, don't worry).
She started getting frustrated with me as we continued this conversation without getting anywhere.
Finally, she said, "Did you get the rocket ships fixed or were they still too wet?"
My mind is scrambling, trying to make sense of what she is telling me.  And I have had to do this a lot with Middle. And sometimes she gets frustrated that I can't understand her. So, I try really, really, really hard to think about what she is telling me and use as many context clues as I can possibly find to figure out what she is talking about. This particular time was frustrating to me because I understood her completely, I just had no idea what the rocket ships were. I couldn't remember anytime we had talked about rocket ships other than Chris Hadfield, and I had ruled him out already. The clue was the "too wet" part. I searched through my brain, "Too wet, too wet. What or when have we been too wet? What is she talking about?!"

And then, it came to me.

Rocket ships= rock chips.

Say it quickly. They sound very similar.

Oh! I get it! I understand! And so I could then tell her the adventure I had getting my rocket ships repaired.

It sounds way cooler that way. And that I am, too.

Maybe, since I sound so cool, my next adventure will take me to singing with an astronaut who is aboard the International Space Station for Music Monday. Oh, wait. It did. I am that cool!