Dead batteries and the Max

Today my kids and I went to Ikea because I "needed" some things.  (As much as one can ever need curtains and picture frames I suppose).  My Jeep has been dying a lot lately - sometimes I leave the lights on and it kills the battery and sometimes one of my interior lights flickers on (it has a short in it or something) and it kills the battery.  There was a time in my life where I probably could have fixed it.....I once changed a CV shaft in a car.  Alone. By myself.  When I was just 17.  AND IT WORKED.   But that was over a decade ago and these days I'm really proud of myself when I remember to take the Jeep to Jiffy Lube.   Anyways.....today an interior light flickered on while I was shopping in Ikea and wouldn't you know I came out to a very dead battery.   Being that this happens quite frequently to me (I was just seen bumming a jump off a lady in the WinCo parking lot on Monday.  True story.)  I now carry jumper cables with me.  Always. But today I realized I was parked in an impossible place to bum a jump off anyone.  Ikea has these big medians between some of their parking spaces, so no one in front of me could reach my battery, and I was left with just the two cars next to me to hopefully bum from.  But people at Ikea sometimes take hours.  And as I sat there with three kids including my nap-less two year old, I realized I did not want to wait.

I figured it was time to get one of those jumper box things for my car.

So I googled auto parts stores and realized the nearest one was just under 4 miles away.

There was NO way I could walk that with a 3 kids and no stroller.

Then I looked to my left and saw the Max station, sighed, knew what I had to do, and did it.

I confess that I have never taken first-world public transport as an adult.  (Third world public transport, yes, but that's another story that involves motorcycles and vans with far to many passengers).

I was a little scared.  My phone was down to 25% battery and that was what I was using to figure out the max schedule.  Once it died I knew I would be toast.

We hopped on the first train and rode up two stops.  My kids made friends with a sweet lady that sat across from us.  We stopped at the next station and waited for our next train.  My toddler tried to run in the path of the oncoming trains only twice.  I had a mild panic moment and then held on to his wriggling little fat fingers with a death grip and ignored his complaints until we could get on to our second train.  The second train was crowded.  No seats at all, so we had to stand.  Naturally the leather loops that were made for adults to hold onto turned into monkey bars for my two year old that insisted he needed to swing like George of the Jungle from loop to loop while he explained to me how silly monkeys were and how much he loved them.  Meanwhile a British lady told me I should get him a leash and then proceeded to tell me how "all the European women use leashes on their kids and think nothing of it."   I agreed with her.  My kid needs a leash.

We get out at our last stop (Burnside and 122nd) and start to walk towards the auto parts store which is almost a half mile from the max station.  I had nearly 5 mild panic attacks during the course of our walk there and back being that we were by two incredibly busy and fast moving roads.  My baby REALLY didn't want to hold my hand, though I made him anyways.   I purchased the very heavy jumper box and we start our journey back.  (Thank you Oregon, by the way, for no longer allowing stores to use plastic bags.   That was really fun carrying a giant battery on one hip and a toddler and purse on the other.  A bag with handles would have been real nice!) Somehow we get stuck at not one, but two intersections with a very large man on his cell phone who dropped lots of bad words and kept complaining about not having his diabetes medications.  I wish my kids hadn't heard the f word so much today.  Sigh.

We make it back to the max and I hop on a train.....only it's the wrong train and I realize we're heading towards Southeast and that is not where I want to go.  So we jump off.  Wait for the next train.  Hope that it's the right one because I can't figure it out on my phone which is now down to 10% and we head towards (what I hope) is the right area.

Turns out it was and we only have to make one more transfer before we head back to Cascade Station.
I buy each of the kids a pop because "I'm dying of thirst mom....dying!" and then I took this:

So we board our last train and my baby has had it.  He flops and screams and cries for the entire ride.   A two year old without a nap is not a pretty thing to see.   We get out at the station and once we stopped he was all good,  so we start to head back to the car.   I looked over and saw this to my right so I snapped a pic with my phone as my son tells me that it looks like heaven is shining through the clouds......

(yes its a iphone sunset pic....like I'm really gonna carry my slr on the max?!?)

As I'm putting my phone away the baby melts on to the sidewalk....done.with.life.  He flops and screams and cries because some of his pop spilled and his pop won't fit in his sweatshirt pocket like Bubba's and he doesn't want to hold my hand and he doesn't want to walk.   I pick up his little screaming, kicking, hitting, sobbing body and carry him the rest of the way to the jeep, load up the kids, strap him in his car seat and shut the door on the fits.  I stood in front of my popped jeep hood for a few minutes and breathed deeply.   Sigh.  The jeep started right up for us and we were on our way home. 

To be truthful.  If I had found myself in this situation 4 years ago.....I don't even know.  It would have been a lot more pathetic than it was today.   Somehow, someway, with God's strength, I'm figuring out how to survive this big world without anyone but God and my 3 babies walking with me.   No, I didn't pick this, but I'm grateful for whatever God is trying to teach me here, even if it sucks, and even if it means I have to take the Max.