My SoCAL (or Western) Beach Vacation....last night there....
After driving over 2500 miles from Calgary to Camp Pendleton to camp with my sister, but first to take care of my convalescent mother...this was my last night at the beach..
We had a bonfire on the beach, and as we were cleaning up, I sent all the kids (6 total) down to take a shower before bed.
While I was in the RV, packing, in hops my nephew, saying he tore the skin off of his big toe. Now, I spent the entire summer (6 weeks) fixing his boo-boos. He is 15 years old, and has grown over a foot in the last few months and constantly banging himself up and in general is full of self-inflicted injuries.
So I sit down with his foot in my lap to examine, remove sand and blood and tissue, when in runs my son. My mother’s instinct was on fire...something terrible had happened. He’s in shock and cannot talk...and I see lots of road rash on his body. Now, I have unplugged my RV, so run him over to my sister’s RV, where she has been using her shower, so I can rinse him off and take a closer look. I get him into the shower and start to examine his wounds and ask how this has happened. He was riding back from the showers, and sitting on the front handle bars of his cousin's peg bike, with towel wrapped around his neck, when his cousin hit a speed bump, his towel got caught in the front spokes and this flipped him over the front of the tires, making him slide several feet on the sand covered pavement. He is practically in shock, and my sister is going a bit nutso, saying I’m babying him...and I’m now pissed at her, so leave with my son, bloody, and dripping wet back to my RV. When I realize that my dog, in the haste of the moment, followed me out the door over to my sister's, but was distracted by an animal in the bush. She is now waiting nervously outside, quite happy that she found a skunk, with me not happy about her stinky find at all.
So, the dog gets put in her outside caged area...and somehow she knew not to whine at me all night. I finish bandaging my nephew's toe (his parents are in Europe, my husband is in Italy); my son is cleaned, rubbed with Polysporin, tucked in bed, I have to close my window so as not to smell my dog all night. I am too beat to take a shower now.
The following morning I have to get my RV into the shop to repair the muffler, and pick up de-skunking remedies at the pharmacy.
Needless to say, my morning was not off to a good start....and I was stressed from the night before and needed some R&R from the beach vacation. And I still had to drive 2500 miles home.
I am blessed to have children to take care, the knowledge to take care of them, the $$ to repair my RV, and drive it around for the summer.
I believe that we did not miss your point, but that you have an abundance to be thankful for, and no one's life is ever perfect.