Along the way ---- will happen, good and bad and everything in-between. Sometimes all in the same day. The only thing that you can hope for, pray on and be blessed with is that when it all happens that you have someone there to help you through it, enjoy it with, and sometimes..... just sit quietly next to you so that you know that you are loved. "Whiteline"
Planning, packing getting reved up to go and my teenage son decides to be a teenage boy. Putting in to doubt our ability to even make the trip - ladies and gentlemen....... we now have a trust issue.
This weekend was a slap up side the head for me... We started Sunday with out a care in the world... ok, we had cares but they were put on the back burner... bike rides tend to do that for me.... Iggy had set us up on a great journey through Fountain Hills and out to Cave Creek for breakfast. Not just an ordinary breakfast but the breakfast of Kings and Queens - I figure it had to be fit for royalty since the tab was $80.00!! Them's some really 'spensive eggs (& biscuits & gravy)! That aside, Iggy, it was nice, really nice, 130 mile round trip through some of the best desert riding the valley has to offer (sorry about the dirt on your bike).
Well, what we didn't take into consideration when we went for our breakfast ride is that in our house there was and still is an ongoing battle between puppy-love and common sense...add to the battle the following: car keys, a Jeep and a 16 year old without a license and the unquenchable desire to be with your girlfriend. In not one of his most brilliant moments my boy decided "damned the consequences", get your friends to cover for you, threaten to disembowel your brothers and go! Little did my Teen-Stranger know, that his parents wouldn't be gone that long. When we arrive home and find both the Jeep and NW are gone Detectives Dad & Mom first panic and then start our investigation - after an indepth search of the garage and the back yard and interrogating everyone in the neighborhood; we arrive at the very same conclusion we did when we pulled in... no Jeep & no Teen-Stranger!
Without nearly a pause, my wife says, "Check the GIRLFRIENDS HOUSE!" Mystery of the missing boy & jeep are now solved - at least we know where they are. Now, how to get him home without calling the police... XXXXX suggests to send the moms out to go and get him from the girlfriends house... (as opposed to the Dads - wouldn't be pretty...) by the time the Moms arrive at the girlfriends, who live about 15 miles away - no luck, little *&^%! has just left the scene and according to what our Junior Detectives are able to find out (thanks TK for making the call to NW's Girlfriend).... He is supposed to be on his way home -so what now? The Moms are now back and they left the girlfriends after Teen-Stranger was already gone... So WHY isn't he home... (scared? I would be.)
At a complete loss as to what to do (the parenting manual doesn't have this chapter in it anywhere) we decide that we'll call a friend, whose husband is a cop and see what would happen if we called the Police. After doing so, and listening to what he had to say; my wife and I went back and forth on what to do. Doing what officer Matt suggested - report the car as being "driven by an unauthorized driver" aka Stolen - would have no less than 4 police cars, canines and a helicopter in pursuit of him. When they caught him he would be pulled from the vehicle, put face down on the ground, cuffed and thrown into the back of the police car, and we would have been called to come get him. Maybe this would have been the best thing to do, I didn't think so. All that kept running through my mind was what if the dumbass would have bolted? What then? At the best a wrecked Jeep - at the worst, I can't even think it.
My idea; we'll wait him out. While all of the adults all discuss what to do when he gets home, should we call the police or not and a thousand other things, Teen-Stranger returns home; parks in the drive, leaves the keys on the door mat and heads for the hills! Unfortunately for him, his brothers and friends all come inside and tell us "HE's" back. Also unfortunate for him; his dad is part teenager and 5 minutes later the boy is in Dads custody and deep in */%! - just not sure what kind yet but he's deep in to it. At the very least he will be going to Confession tonight and later having surgery to remove my foot.
Thank you Lord for your guidance, the angels that were with my son on Sunday and the patience not to strike out and throttle him... Thank you for making me a part of a species that doesn't eat their young - although I pray otherwise most days.... and thank you for putting people on this earth that ALWAYS have my back and may they know that I ALWAYS have theirs as wel
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