He's Got My Back

I've lived alone for a long time. So, Ron being gone this week didn't worry me much. There were a few things that I went over with him before he left, just to make sure - like how to shut the water off to the house. But other than emergency procedures like that, I'm jiggy on my own. I'm not afraid to be in the house alone.

That is - except for the basement.

This has nothing to do with the ghosts in our house. I'm even ok with them. But basements have BUGS! Can you say eww? You know I hate bugs. Any bugs. No matter what, there is always something down there be it spiders, roly polys, crickets and remember when we had the bat? It may not be a bug but it's just as bad. For this reason, I try to limit my alone time in the basement. Ron is almost always willing to go to the basement with me if I need to go after dark. I seem to do better if it's light outside but if it's dark, forget about it. I know that more creepy things come out after dark, like that damn bat. At least if I have back up I feel safer.

This blog is a shout out to my brother Jim! Once again, he saved me. He has my back.

Monday night I had gone out to dinner and came home as it was getting dark. A lot of our extra supplies are kept in the basement and I really needed to go grab some of them. Ok, if you must know, I was almost out of toilet paper in the upstairs bathroom so this is now a necessity that I suck it up and go to the basement alone at night.

Just as I get to the bottom of the stairs, my phone rings and it's brother Jim! He was calling to check on me to see how I was handling my alone time. I told him he had perfect timing as I had just walked down to the basement! He knows how I hate bugs having lived with me for how many years. He's killed his share of spiders in my vicinity at the family homestead. Being the good brother that he is, he offered to stay on the line with me, sort of like holding my hand through it via long distance. I was definitely jiggy with that!

With Jim on the phone, I was able to do more than I thought. I grabbed the toilet paper for the upstairs bathroom, I needed more storage bags for the kitchen, I emptied the full dehumidifier in the basement and even went pee all the while on the phone with Jim. I only dropped the phone once!

I told Jim he was my hero for getting me through that stressful situation (yeah, hard to believe I'm over 40, isn't it) and he said anytime I needed to get to the basement for the rest of the week to do laundry or whatever, he'd be on call for babysitting me. Now that's a good brother!

I have another Jim story, less his head now gets too big to fit through a door.

Tuesday evening, I'm up in the computer room, of course playing Pogo. I don't remember what time it was, but it was late. I was already dressed for bed and just playing games and watching tv. I decided to head down to the kitchen for another glass of kool aid (yes, I really am over 40!) and I looked at my phone sitting there on my desk and I was wondering if I should carry it downstairs with me to get my kool aid. Then again, I didn't have pockets so I didn't want to lug it with me. Besides, I'm only going to be two minutes to run downstairs and back up again.

So there I was, in the kitchen in mid pour and I heard a "thud" coming from upstairs. Now what the heck was I supposed to do? Those ghosts that I just got done telling you didn't bother me were suddenly in the front of my mind. I had four cell phones at the house - my two and Ron's two, and all four are upstairs. I got nothing downstairs. Well, I have my axe handle I use to make it to the car when there are dogs around. I don't know how effective it is going to be against a ghost but I thought maybe if it was an intruder I'd have a chance. I grabbed my axe handle and my glass of kool aid and up I went.

I started up the stairs, turning on every light I could. Upstairs, I give a quick look around and nothing seemed grossly out of place. What the heck did I hear? There I was, standing in the hallway when I hear BZZZZZ. Brother Jim had called in that minute it took me to run downstairs. The phone was still on vibrate and while it was ringing, it vibrated itself right off of my desk. With the hard wood floors, the thud was easily heard downstairs in the kitchen! The buzzing I heard from the hallway was my signal that I had a voicemail! Sweet, mystery solved.

Again, my big brother was making sure I was ok. If only he'd have called 30 seconds sooner or waited another 30 seconds until I was back upstairs, I wouldn't have had to name my newest gray hair after him!

Thanks, Jim. For being my big brother with ALL that it entails. And, I know with me as a baby sister, it entails a lot! I'm glad you're always there from me, even from the next state over.