Domino effect.

It all started a couple of months ago when The Husband’s career made a large U-turn. He came home from over-the-road driving, accompanied by boxes and boxes of personal posessions. Which had nowhere to go but our garage.

Then came a few minor but necessary household and vehicle repairs, which required dragging out his vast supply of tools also found in the garage.

Somewhere in there, in July, we moved our boy back to his university. Sigh.

Then came six weeks of evenings and weekends in which puttering around and “organizing” made only the tiniest dent in the disaster area that is intended for housing a car.

Which means that for the last six weeks my lovely new car has been living in the driveway, exposed to massive amounts of maple tree sap that increase every day as the summer winds down. Which means that a morning run through the local car wash lasts only one day, while I’m parked at work. The next morning I’m struggling to peer through a sticky, dotted windshield, which gets thicker and thicker all week long until I break down and get another wash for the sake of one day of shiny paint and unblocked vision.

Then came Middle’s middle-of-the-night illness and need for rescue early last week. The Husband lost so much sleep (enough that he didn’t feel safe doing his hour-long early-morning commute to work) that he decided to take that day off and work on Saturday instead. Even with the long Labor Day weekend, I knew it was pretty unlikely that he’d manage to finish the garage-clear out.

And so, on a whim, I took matters into my own hands and texted The Boy yesterday. Was there any chance he could make a run home over the weekend to work his magic and clear me out a car-sized space? (He’s done this exact same project for us – yes, it’s a recurring thing – multiple times over the last year. His record time is 90 minutes.) I’d pay for his gas. And there was the added bonus that he could be home for his sister’s birthday. Not to mention the fact that he’s wildly popular around here and we’d love to spend a bit of time with him.

Thinking he had no reason to go home for the long weekend, he’d volunteered for R.A. duty until 5:00 Sunday evening. But he’s happy to make a run home after that for a brief visit, knowing his skills are needed and his company wanted.

And so the final domino falls over with a very happy ending for this mama.

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