"Welcome to England, this the emergency room" and other (mis)adventures of Philip M Lere

My husband has had a very eventful stretch of time at work the last couple of weeks. It all started when his new commander arrived. . .

* Philip's new sqadron commander is a father of six. The poor man threw out his back transporting some luggage right before he and his troop got on the plane to come to England. He endured the transatlantic flight in a lot of pain. He then waited with his family for three hours at Heathrow. Next was the two hour ride to base only to find out that their room wasn't ready. Philip and his boss set the family up in the distinguished visitor lounge and tried to entertain and feed them. Philip's first duty for his commander was to bring the poor man to the Emergency Room on his first day to get a shot for the pain.

* Several days later, the change of command ceremony that Philip has been planning takes place. The baton is handed off. There were some bigwigs in for this ceremony. The day after it was finished, Philip was responsible to bring the really important bosses back to Heathrow (they were important enough that they weren't people you'd subject to the shuttle bus that runs from base which would have meant a 5 hour wait for them at the airport). Philip had to use his personal vehicle (stupid beaurocracy about not just using a govt vehicle). THANKFULLY, Philip and the men arrived at the airport safe and on time.

UNFORTUNATELY, the engine in the car seized up on the way back from London (praise the Lord it was only 20 miles from home). We had to pay $225 to have the car towed and have to junk it and buy a new one (this is why people are wise to follow Dave Ramsey's advice about an "emergency fund"). Well, "new" as in another $1500 car. . . I was so grateful that we hadn't just paid the car tax and spent a lot of money to have it checked for the yearly test it has to pass to be on the road in the UK. I was also grateful that the car broke down AFTER the airport drop-off and that Philip was stranded in the England countryside close to home, not in the middle of London madness.

* Today Philip made a return trip to the ER. This morning someone rushed into his office saying "you have to take the commander to the emergency room, he's lying on the floor in his office" As if his "welcome" to England couldn't be worse, the man had a kidney stone attack today. Once again, Philip was his escort.

Never a dull moment.