Last Christmas
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This Christmas was very different for us. My mom is not doing well and I wanted to be with her on Christmas. We booked a cottage at a farm in Landrum. It is an amazingly beautiful spot with an inn and adorable cottages available for those visiting the area. We stopped by to see my mom before heading out to the country. When we arrived at the cottage, the innkeepers gave us our key and informed us that they have a lock on the thermostat. They assured us we would be comfortable…it was set on heat at 66 degrees Fahrenheit. We were so tired that we paid little attention and drove out the gravel road to our adorable cottage. We walked in and fell in love with our little place for Christmas. Garren found his way into the bathroom. We all were waiting our turn. John, lucky guy, went next…the toilet was running over all over the floor. We searched for a plunger…no luck. We hated to disturb the innkeepers, so John drove the 7 miles to the closest quick mart to buy one. Of course, I was still waiting in line. He called me to give me the good news that the mart does not carry plungers and to call the innkeepers. It was almost 11:00. No answer on the first try. I called back; we had to have a bathroom. I gave the wife innkeeper the news and asked if John could stop by and pick up the tool we needed. She was worried about the floors. Did we need towels to dry the floor? No concern that I was still waiting in line. She finally agreed to let John have the plunger. She chatted for a few minutes about the gluten free food in the fridge and how expensive it was. For some reason, she jarred my memory that, while I was surveying the flood in the bathroom, I noticed there were only 3 bath towels…for the entire stay. We are a showering family and require fresh, dry towels for each shower. I asked her if he could also pick up additional towels when he was picking up the plunger. She sounded a little miffed and said we would have to pick them up in the morning due to the fact that they were in a ‘hiding place.” I had no idea where that was. Exhausted, I said okay and hung up the phone. John quickly fixed the toilet…thankfully. We ate our Christmas Eve dinner of frozen chicken pot pies and began decorating the tree. At about one AM, I decided to use my one allotted towel and go to bed. By two AM, we had no clean towels. It was an unusually warm night for Christmas Eve, and I was too tired to care. Christmas morning, we had a nice walk with the dogs and John went up to the inn to see if there were clean towels available for us. He came back with a bag containing 3 more towels. We would still run short. John decided to drive the hour to my mom’s house to get us towels. While he was gone, we worked on the tree, and then I proceeded to go into the bathroom for a shower. I wanted to be ready when John returned so that I could visit with my mom. I almost had all my clothes off when there was a knock at the door…on Christmas morning. Maggy and Atticus went nuts. Garren inquired who was there, since we were not expecting company. I put my clothes back on and tried to calm the dogs. The man on the other side of the door said he was there to pick up our towels from Christmas Eve. Garren opened the door and returned the three towels to the innkeepers’ assistant. At this point, I was a little annoyed, but my worries were about my mom. John arrived shortly thereafter, and we headed over to the assisted living. While driving over, we started calling restaurants. Of course, they were all closed. We found one place open in Flat Rock, but they refused us, even under the circumstances…they were full. We were all starving and resorted to calling Chinese eating establishments. We found an open eatery and felt a little relieved as we walked into my mom’s room. Hospice had suggested starting a pain patch the day before to go along with the Tylenol 3 and Oxycontin that they were already giving my mom. When I walked in the room, she was so doped up that I was sure I was going to lose her. After many tears, we left to grab a quick bite at the Chinese diner. I felt like I was in China. It was no Boading. We all left hungry, nothing else was open, and I was very worried about my mom. We stayed pretty late, shed many tears, and I was prepared to return if necessary. I spoke with the owner of the facility, and we decided to cut the pain meds way back. We drove the country roads back to our adorable cottage. We realized we hadn’t even opened presents. We decided that John could go in and turn on the Christmas lights, while Garren and I set out on a beautiful, quiet walk with Maggy and Atticus. We had just gotten out of the car when John ran to the porch to inform us we had guests…two birds. When I walked up to take a look, two birds were flying around. The dogs went crazy, and it was burning up inside our cute little abode. I could not believe it. Another call to the innkeepers. She asked John why we let them in! Did we leave the door open? Or perhaps they followed him in?? She would send her husband up to retrieve the birds. Then John pointed out that the cottage was too hot, and asked if they could unlock the thermostat and turn on the air conditioner. She told him that that would be a problem because of the gas logs. He asked her what the A/C had to do with the gas logs. She replied that you can’t have the gas logs and the air conditioner. They would have to disable the gas logs before they could switch on the air conditioner. I guess she figured we would turn on the gas logs and turn down the A/C, which would be costly. He just told her to send someone up about the birds. Garren and I took the two excited-about-birds dogs back to the car to wait for bird removal. Two guys showed up with a net and a box to start the job. Evidently, chasing the birds around the hot cottage was a little uncomfortable…enough so that the husband innkeeper unlocked that #$@% thermostat and turned on the A/C. He broke a couple of birdhouses that he caused to fall from the rafters. One bird flew out in fear and the other one hit a window. It fell, stunned. John rescued it and took it outside. The two men left with the net and the box, but forgot the three towels from our morning showers. The thermostat remained unlocked. We finally got inside. I was exhausted, worried about my mom, and starving. We had a bowl of cereal as we finally opened our Christmas gifts. They were wonderful. We had our own towels for showers, no hitch with the toilet, and we all collapsed into bed. The sun was starting to shine when we woke up. We made it to my mom’s. She had already had a shower and was doing much better without the pain meds. We had a great lunch at Stone Soup, sitting outside on a beautiful day. The only thing that still worries me is: Where did the birds come from?
