One of those mornings

There are a few iconic dreams that most people have — being naked in public, being back at school on the last day of classses and realizing you’ve been enrolled in a class all semester and haven’t attended a single one, being chased by an unstoppable foe, etc.

A recurring dream I have is trying to get somewhere and being stymied at every turn by some dumb thing. The first time I can remember having this dream was in 9th grade when I had to get on a plane the next morning to go to the Bermuda Band Festival. It was the first time I ever went on a big trip without my parents.

One morning this week felt a little like that dream.

I was slow getting up because I was still shaking off a cold, so I was going to be late to the office. Then there was a heavy frost, and my ice scraper wasn’t in my car. I went to the garage to get one, and the garage door wouldn’t close. It would go down about a foot and then go back up, as if it hit something. I knew I could fix that by pulling down on the door, but the switch was at the other end of the garage, so I’d hit the switch, run to grab the door, and … too late.

That happened several times, but I finally got it.

I got on the road and a neighbor flagged me down. My right front tire was flat. It’s been suffering from a slow leak for a while, but this time it was genuinely flat. I went back to the house and got the “fix a flat,” hoping the magic goo would find the leak and plug it.

Best practices with that fix a flat stuff is to deflate the tire completely, inject the goo into the tire (which partially inflates it), then drive a couple miles to spread the stuff around evenly. I did that, drove to the drug store to get some tissues and some OTC cold medicine, then inflated it the rest of the way. (I have a portable air compressor that I keep in the back of the car.)

Finally, I was ready to go to work.

But no. I had forgotten to take my antibiotic. So I had to go back to the house.  Ugh!