One of Those Days

Life is the same no matter where you live... today was one of those days with all sorts of things going wrong.  I arrived at the Shorts' house about the same time as Beth and little Emmy, but it took us awhile to get anyone's attention to let us in the gate.  Emmy found a stick to try to pick the lock...unfortunately, she is much too short to actually put the stick anywhere that might actually be useful, but it kept her occupied.  We were just laughing that she's already caught on to how to get in the gate without a key.  Beth and I might have managed it, but we don't like to do it while the kids at the daycare across the road are watching (and they were), and besides we were just waiting on the Shorts anyhow to go to Arusha, so we might as well wait outside as well as inside.

 Speaking of leaving for Arusha... The car had been driven out of the gate and parked outside, and we finally got everyone out and settled, and then the car wouldn't start again.  Albert tried to jump it off the landrover, but no luck.  We finally had to call a mechanic to come out, and he got it going.  But it died again right after he left.  Two hours later, we finally gave up and took the old blue car instead, which we try to avoid but it guzzles gas.  (Tammy kept driving the silver car over the next few days and we kept having to rescue her when it broke down all over town; finally with a new battery and some other electrical work done, they finally got it behaving again.  Also, turns out those jumper cables don't work.)

With our late start, it was well after dark before we got home from Arusha.  We arrived to a commotion in the yard--the cat had escaped from the house, got into a fuss with the dogs, and ran further up into a tree than was wise. Lewis ended up on a ladder on a cat-rescuing expedition while we stood around holding lights and yelling various helpful suggestions that he mostly didn't appreciate.