Grapple

With the illness we have been battling, we have all been grappling with lack of sleep. It's been hard to fall asleep and hard to stay asleep when you're gagging and coughing, your nose is clogged or running, or you're feverish. This sickness has also kept my littlest from napping for many days. And on the run up to this illness, he had been up on and off during the night for about a month, due to his 2 year molars coming in. As a result of his over-tiredness he is just not coping and acting mean. He is an active, impish child in general, but he is not usually malicious. 

Today his lack of sleep reached crisis proportions. Since we had just picked up my vehicle from the shop last night, I strapped him in and headed out at nap time, hoping that the vertical position, lulling hum and vibration, and endless new things to look at would help him to get a rest. I figured it would be a dual purpose excursion. I'm still learning my way around the winding, hilly, wooded countryside with its myriad of weirdly named roads. 

For example, the first time I got onto MapQuest to figure out the shortest drive to a nearby highway, I was directed to drive on Possum Trot, Rocky Hill and Coon Path roads... in succession! Other nearby roads that I have driven on or past that have stuck with me are named Rattlesnake Road, Hardscrabble Road, Wolf Mountain Road, Paw Paw Road, Pea Ridge Road, Switchback Road, Rat Lane, Ham Lane, and Drunkard's Pike. What fun... and a little intimidating to a city-raised girl too :)

Today I thought I'd try to find the local horse rescue place. I knew the general area... by the red London double decker bus that advertises a salvage place. I figured I'd drive around over there.

I didn't find the horse place. I passed a junk yard. It had a car on a pole for a sign. It was NOT the salvage place referenced on the local landmark. Then I nearly got run off the road by a semi hauling a gargantuan grapple skidder. (Grapple skidders are used by loggers to drag felled trees back to the log loading area.) 

I had just come over the crest of a hill. The road was narrow and wooded on either side. The land fell away to my right and rose steeply to my left. Luckily I spotted a cemetery sign marking a tiny gravel drive that went straight up the hillside just in front of me on my left. I quickly swerved into the steep little lane, my traction control system making noise and the new gravel slipping out from underneath my wheels. Carved out of the woods was a tiny cemetery on a steep slope. It was seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

But I didn't stay. The first rule of a "nap drive" is to stay in motion. So I turned around and pulled out behind the oversized load so that my kiddo, who is tractor crazy, could see it. He, of course, had just fallen asleep. He missed the whole episode. I snapped some pictures to show him later, and consoled myself with the fact that in his foul mood he probably would have had a tantrum anyway because he'd have rather seen a knuckleboom loader or a feller buncher. 

Rurality is full of fun and surprises. The truck had no flashers on. There were no red flags that I noted. There was no "oversized load" signs in a place that was readable. There were no "lead" or "trailer" vehicles.

When it turned off of the the road we were on, I decided to head back the way I had come, thinking I'd take the other branch of a road that had "Y"ed. But the little man woke up screaming and kicking the back of my seat before I got the chance to... which he did until we were nearly home, despite my attempts at calming him. 

He only slept fitfully for all of 20 minutes. That meant that the rest of the day he head-butted, hit, kicked, screamed, and was generally a little terror. He was like an injured, trapped animal. He felt awful, didn't understand why, and was taking it out on everybody.

It's hard to believe it when you see his sweet face, isn't it? So I won't spell out all the trouble the boy conjured up today. That way we can all forget it ever happened and just remember his long lashes, his cherubic cheeks, his plump little paws, and his sweet smile. Because, really, that is what he is generally all about, reaching up to ask/command me throughout most days, "Mama? Hold my hand."