Missing in Action 3

Seriously? There is a third? And to think that I’ve never even seen numbers one and two. Oh dear. And speaking of thirds…

Kidlet #3 has a baseball tournament this coming weekend in the eastern part of our state. It’s a three hour drive from our home so we will be staying in a hotel near the fields. I booked our reservations last month after asking my husband if he’d like to go with us. He said he would, even though baseball doesn’t interest him. We’d take our dog along so if Steve really gets restless he can take her for a walk. He booked a vacation day at work.

A win-win situation for all of us. Our son would have both of his parents there for support, I’d have some ‘away from home non-chore’ time with my hubby, and the dog would have us to herself for 24/3. Simple, or so I thought.

A few days after I had booked our two queen-bed suite, Steve calls from work. His buddy from college invited him and kidlet #3 to go to his cabin to ski for the weekend.

“What dates?” asks I.

“Last weekend in March,” answers my spouse.

“Sorry, that’s the first baseball tourney of the season – remember? I’ve already booked our room.” I responded. Silly me.

“Oh.” There was a long, long pause. Then silence. I look at my cell phone. Seven minutes has elapsed.

“Steve? Are you still there?”

“Yah.” More silence. Okay, I think to myself, he really wants to go skiing. He hasn’t seen college buddy since last summer. So I tell him that if he really wants to go, fine, but our son is going to play ball. I offered to tell our kidlet that perhaps we would sleep better if Dad isn’t along.

“Great!” was my husband’s enthusiastic reply.

Great, I think to myself. Our son is going to be very disappointed. Dad is going to be missing in action again. He just doesn’t like sports, even though kidlet #3 plays baseball, football, and basketball, and also does wrestling and track. He is as athletic as his father is not. Opposite ends of the athletic scale for sure.

A week goes by. Husband pops up with a question. “What are you going to do with the dog?”

“Leave her with you of course,” I answer. She is really his dog. He would have mainly dealt with her had he gone with us to baseball.

“I can’t take her skiing!” He is horrified. Okay dokey. We have a problem on our hands. I suggest he rethink his ski trip. After all, he committed to that event second. We have tried to teach our kids that once you’ve committed to something, you don’t cancel it because something ‘better’ comes along. Life is all about choices. Be responsible to the original choice.

“But you don’t want me to come! You said I snore too much!”

I remind Steve that I was only using that to explain to our son why his dad wasn’t coming with us. My husband remembered it all differently. I remind him that he had originally taken the day off from work for the baseball tournament, so yes, that event was committed to first. He admitted that the ski trip was secondary to his commitment to our family. He is still puzzling out why he got it all turned around. He acts like it is all a big dark mystery.

“Because you have Aspergers,” I laughed.