Doc-In-the-Box . . . The Story That Dr. Seuss Didn't Write

It was a cloudy, cold day.

Then, it was a beautiful sunny, warm day.

Then it got cooler the next day.

The tornado sirens went off.

It got colder.

It rained. Then it snowed.

The sun came out.

It was still cold.

And that's our weather. No wonder I'm afflicted with "the crud" right now. To make matters even more fun, Gregg's sick. So is my mom. She is the original bearer of the crud germs though, so we are blaming her for our problems. (Isn't that what kids do? Blame their parents for all things bad?)

Things didn't improve much with a trip to the Doc-in-the-Box yesterday. (Doc-in-the-Box is what we call the kind people who we visit when our own family doctor has too many crud-inflicted people in the office for the day to be able to squeeze us in for a visit. Doc-in-the-Box is located in Wal-Mart in these parts. Maybe you have a Doc-in-the Box somewhere "unusual" where you live . . . a grocery store? A pharmacy? Maybe even in a Dunkin Donuts?)

I knew we were in for a humor-less visit when Thing 2 and I were first escorted into the Doc-in-the-Box room and the kind nurse practitioner on duty gestured toward one of the chairs and said, "I put the basket of suckers and stickers out for you." I immediately thanked her profusely, paused then said "oh, you meant they're for her!" as I motioned to Thing 2. No laughter. Moving on.

The exam commenced. As predicted, I did indeed have "the crud." As she left my side to go write out a prescription for antibiotics, I asked if she could also prescribe or recommend something for the sinus pressure. She looked up at me.

"I guess I should look inside your nose," she said.

Uhm . . . I'm thinking that she probably should have done this earlier on, but that's ok. She's sending me off with a prescription for drugs. I like her so much that I just may add her to the list of people to send Christmas cards to if I ever actually resume this activity again rather than just discuss it in the next holiday season.

As Thing 2 and I headed to our prescription-filling place of choice, I noticed sparrows busily building a nest in the "R" of DRIVE-THRU" as we waited in line at Walgreen's. I was mesmerized by their activity-wondering if they had any clue that it's still way too cold to comfortably wear capri pants. Later on in the evening, Thing 1 spotted robins in a yard on our street and upon arriving home, spotted two more robins in the yard next to our's.

"Look Mommy, those robins are fighting with each other!" she laughed. "See how they're hitting each other with their wings?" As I turned in the direction of the birds, she was right. They were definitely working out some issues with eachother.

The nesting sparrows and conflict-filled robins have given me hope, though.

Capri pants just may be in my immediate future after all.