Friday, August 28, 2015

"remember the time..."

My mom is never late. Never ever.

She always adds at least 20 minutes to every trip. "Mom, I timed it, it's only 7 miles and takes exactly 10 minutes to get there." 

"Believe me! It doesn't take 10 minutes. You should give yourself at least 30. There could be.... " (fill-in-the-blank, an accident, traffic, road construction, something).

Last time I visited she drove me to the bus stop for my ride home. We waited in the car 45 minutes for the bus to arrive.

My sister and her husband are going to the Vineyard for the day. This involves driving their car to a lot in Falmouth, than being bussed to the ferry. From my mom's house, it's about a ten minute ride to the parking lot and another 15 to the ferry.  "When do you think we should leave?" Valerie poses at dinner.  Everyone chimes in. The ferry leaves at 9:30 a.m. and the consensus is that they should leave about 8:30. Everyone, that is, except for my mother. She suggests leaving at 8.

Her suggestion leads to additional comments by others.

"I think maybe you should leave at 6 a.m.  You can never trust the Cape traffic."

"It could be bumpah-ta-bumpah all the way."

"You know, I would leave now, just to be safe." (Now being around 9pm, as dinner is winding down).

My mother is a good sport about our teasing.

This morning Val and Abbey leave for the ferry. I think they listened to my mom and left around 8, mostly to appease her. They get to the parking lot and it's full. They then have to call my mom, drive back to her house, and have her drive them to Woods Hole. They make the ferry no problem.

This worked out perfectly for my mother. Now, whenever she insists on leaving extra early for something, she can always fall back on the Ferry Experience.  

Next time we need to be anywhere my mom will be adding an extra hour.  Because — I can hear it now — "Remember the time..."




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