Stress Case

I'm beginning to realize that one of the big jobs that my Mom had during her 35 year marriage to my Dad was to temper him and keep him together. She acted as a calming force. She did his thinking for him and she made his life run smoothly.

My Dad is going to Thunder Bay this weekend to visit some friends. He called me yesterday to tell me what his plans were. Originally, he was supposed to stay with my sister last night, leave his dog there, and then drive to the airport this morning. Simple right?

When I was visiting this weekend, I stupidly left my running shorts at his house, and, even more stupidly, left the keys to his truck in my pocket. He changed his plans in order to stay at my house last night and then I would drive him to the airport this morning.

He called me last evening to tell me first off that he thought that he was having a heart attack because of all the stress and running around that he had to do in order to get ready. He also told me that he wasn't coming last night, but would instead leave home at 5:30am and drive to Toronto. I didn't want to argue with him and I thought, too, that is was better for him to drive in the morning than late at night.

The only problem was that he, sensibly, didn't want to drive all the way downtown at 9:00am and then have to drive all the way back out to the airport. I decided to meet him at Yorkdale mall.

I got up this morning at 8:15, threw on my running shoes, knee braces, shirt, and improvised running shorts (aka: grey bathing suit) and headed out at 8:35am. I ran up to Yorkdale and met my Dad at 9:19 and we drove out to the airport. He was cursing a blue streak at the construction and not knowing which lane to be in, and I just sat there silently knowing that all this panic and worry was for nothing. He was a mental case because he expected to be queued up for hours. I knew that with no bags to check, he could use an automated check-in terminal and walk right over to customs. I expected his wait in customs to be all of 20 minutes since they seem to have their system fairly ironed out by now.

I dropped Dad off and then started home. I stopped at the grocery store even though I was still quite sweaty and stinky from my 10k run. Since I was up so early and had a vehicle, I thought that it made sense to pick up a few essentials (aka: yogurt). I wandered around and had a nice shopping experience all in all ($163 worth of food and 0 trans fats).

I stopped at the beer store and then headed home. I called my Dad at 10:47 to see how he'd made out. He said that he'd used the automated terminal without any problems and was through customs in 10 minutes. He had waited at the gate for more than 45 minutes and was just about to board. I relished being able to tell him, "I told you so." He thanked me and apologized for being so out of control.

So I'm beginning to realize just how crucial my new role as problem-solver and voice-of-reason is. I'm going to have to be calm and cool, and try to make his life as easy as possible. It's not going to be easy, and I really don't know how my Mom did it for more than 35 years. I did it for a grand total of 27 minutes this morning, and I need a three-week vacation.