Wait A Second!

It’s easy to look at time in weeks, months, years but life happens in a second.

When it comes to time I’m not very good at keeping track of it.

“We have so much time and so little to do. Strike that, reverse it.” Roald Dahl

Today, I wish I had a clone, but one cuter and more efficient.

Daisy was already at her swim meet, a qualifying meet for the State Finals. The big kahuna of swim meets and nerves were frayed.

I picked up Dewey from school at 3:00 for his mountain biking practice, slowed the car down kicked him out, “Start pedaling!”

“MOM!” Daisy texted. “FIRST RACE IS IN 20 MINUTES!”

“No problem. I’m only 10 miles away.”

Jinx. Accident on the freeway, 2 lanes blocked expect 30-minute delay.

I relied on the magic of WAZE to help me navigate as I drove through the heavenly countryside like a bat out of hell.

I got to the pool deck just as she kicked off the starter stand, one second later and I would have missed it. More importantly I was there when she tapped the finish.

Actually I wasn’t really sure it was even her race until she popped totally out of the water. But that’s our little secret.

During her break between races, I raced back to pick up Dewey taking a second route altogether.

“Wow Mom only a few seconds late. Bad news my tire needs to be fixed before my race tomorrow.”

“Of course it does. We have a choice. I can take you to the bike store now but then we’ll miss Daisy’s big race. If we go to her race we might not make it to the store before they close.”

He thought for a second, “let’s go to her race.”

“Well done!” I commended.

This time we arrived with seconds to spare. They called her name then, “Take your mark.”

She swam second to none.

“Yay you Daisy! See ya, we gotta go to the bike store.”

“Mom were not going to make it.”

“Not with that attitude were not!”

Again, I drove through traffic like I was involved in a police chase.

“Mom, Mom…”
“WHAT?”

“They close in 7 minutes.”

I called the store. “Hi, we have a flat bike tire and were 10 minutes away can you stay open?”

“That won’t be a problem.”

“Thanks.”

I don’t think that kid had a clue. And I was right.

When we pulled up at 7:05 they were closing the gate.

“Hold on a second! I just called.” I shouted out the car window like I was the President of the Tour de France. “Pardon! Dropping off une bicyclette.”

“OK. One second later and you would be looking at a locked gate.”

When we got home Daisy was crying in the kitchen. “I missed going to the finals.”

“That’s OK, honey.”

“BY ONE SECOND!”

“What?! Daisy that’s awesome!”

“There’s more,” failure filled her eyes.

“More?”

“The election results just came in.”

Yes, on top of everything else today Daisy was running for Vice President at school.

“You mean for VP, actually the second in command?”

“Yes.”

“Let me guess.”