State of Emergency

This morning the Daddy called. Seems the State Emergency Plan cannot function without him and he is activated until further notice. How long? No one is sure, estimate is 10 days. or 7. or 14. Or maybe more. He grabbed lunch with me and we checked the girl out of school so that at least she could see him before he left. Did I mention that he checked her out of class for 15 minutes yesterday morning - which is the first time she had seen him in a week??? That we reassured her she and Daddy could do something special this evening for dinner? That we PROMISED??? She was sobbing today when we were driving to Burger King to meet him. With his twin in the hospital and my life generally off-kilter, this is the worst possible time for him to be gone and he teared up as he begged me to make sure he got timely information about the Uncle. Rumors at work about 5% pay cuts and possible lay-offs again if the state passes the current incarnation of the budget. Sigh.

I need a vacation from my life.

Update:
After frantically running around gathering his cold-weather gear, trying to catch up with us for lunch, driving 2 hours south to pick up the equipment, driving 4 hours north to the mission site… as soon as they arrived, his mission got cancelled… so they turned around and drove 4 hours back to , unloade and store the equipment, drove 2 hours back to home and scared me to death coming in the door at 3:30 this morning. He could not let me know, because his phone ran out of charge mid-trip and they didn't stop anywhere long enough to recharge it.

Seriously.