Monday morning after I left the library I headed to Boot Barn and picked up some new boots and a nice shirt to wear to Wednesday’s hearing. I needed them anyway, this just let me justify the expense. Then I went to the courthouse in Temecula to file the papers.
Miraculously, there was no line at all. I walked right up and handed them to the lady.
She stamped my custody response thingy, but handed the Proof Of Service form back to me. “They missed a line. I can’t accept this.” I looked where she was pointing, and the Date and Time of Service lines had been left empty.
“I was present,” I said hopefully. “Can I just….”
“The signer has to do it,” she said flatly.
Of course she does. I trudged out of the courthouse and called Jenny on my cell to find out if we could connect before Wednesday. Turned out she was at work — in Temecula — and would get off around 3 or 3:30. I had nothing else pressing to do that day, so I told her I would go get something to eat and then hang around Temec until she got off work. That way I could run back to the courthouse and get the darn thing filed and out of the way.
I grabbed some lunch and then checked out the showtimes for Half-Blood Prince, but it’s a long movie and I didn’t quite have time to catch the next showing, so I went back to the library and hung out there for a couple hours.
Jenny got off a little after 3:30, we met up at a Chevron, she scribbled in the date and time of service on the forms, I sped back to Murrieta and got to the courthouse doors at 3:59.
And was told that the public filing department closes at 4:00. I would have to come back another day.
Yeah. That kind of week.
So I went to see The Half-Blood Prince. I was pulling into the theater parking lot when I got a call from one of the members of my worship team to say that that afternoon’s practice had been canceled. I had actually forgotten all about it, which I have never done before, but it’s been, you know, that kind of week.
Half-Blood Prince was easily the best of the Potter movies so far, but I’m afraid I wasn’t in the proper frame of mind to really appreciate it.
Tuesday morning I had an appointment to take Stripes The Cat to get fixed. Which could have been awkward because my sister works there at the vet clinic, but she was friendly and chatty and she looked like married life suits her, so that was cool.
Tuesday afternoon there was a meeting for Vacation Bible School volunteers. Yes, I am one of those. They are short on volunteers this year and once you have been in a place where there’s something you need to do but you can’t do it alone and then people step forward and help you get it done…once you have been there, after that when someone asks you for help you say “Sure, what do you need?” Because now you know that’s one of the things that makes the world worth living in.
After the VBS meeting I went back to the vet, collected Stripes and went home.
That afternoon when the horses wandered in from the pasture to be fed I noticed that Stormy was literally covered in little bumps, like bee stings or birdshot wounds.
And her hindquarters looked like they’d been chewed on.
I still have no idea what happened to her, but she seems okay otherwise.
I was afraid I’d be up all night fretting about the next day’s hearing, but I drank a cup of herbal tea and went to bed and was out like a light.
To Be Continued!
An Invincible Summer 