A Happy Family?

Saying for the day:The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together. ~Erma Bombeck

Well it’s time for another elf tale.
Once upon a time, as you I’m sure remember, there was a young family that was very very happy. But then the mother became a bowling addict and the happiness came to a screeching halt. The husband having been given three wishes by an elf wished that his wife would never bowl again and would stay home with her family. His wish came true and his wife developed such horrible arthritis that she couldn’t bowl and it hurt to even leave the house. But the wife was in pain all the time and her husband who loved her very much knew , in his heart, that he couldn’t live with this situation.
Not that he didn’t have help. Her sisters came every day and did some of the household chores. His mother and her mother took turns cooking the meals. The children got to spend their weekends at one grand parent or another. Her brother , who was a doctor, poured through his medical journals looking for some way to ease her pain. In some sense the family had never been closer.
But still she suffered. He suffered too because he knew this was his fault.
So he began to consider using one of his other wishes.
He could have wished her well but she would go back to bowling.
He could have wished everything back the way it was before the first wish but he didn’t want to live that way.
He could have wished for a million dollars then he could have put his job aside and gone with her on her bowling trips. But that wasn’t the way he wanted to raise his kids.
He could have wished them onto a remote island with everything they needed to survive but they would be separated from the family that they loved and that loved them.
So he struggled trying to find the perfect wish.
He had developed wishaphobia , the fear of making a wrong wish, and just couldn’t wish. But every day her pain got worse.
He had to overcome his fear. He had to find the right wish.
Then it hit him. His wish needed to control not end her bowling. It needed to put the family back as the center of life. He came up with a wish he thought could do all of that. It would be the perfect wish. He refined it and changed it until he was sure it would do the job.
Now he needed to overcome his fear and wish it.
But the doubts remained.
Wonder if he was wrong.
Wonder if it leads to something even worse.
Wonder if the children end up suffering.
Wonder if she ends up hating him for his wishes.
Wonder if , in the entire world, there is no safe wish.
But he had no choice. His wife was screaming in pain. He had to take the risk. He had to make the wish.
He went over it again in his mind. He played out every possible consequence he could think of. It seemed perfect.
He gathered all his courage.
He made the wish.
There was a flash of light. Then a voice said “ There is a problem at wish central. All wishes are on temporary hold. After the Presidential election your wish will be handled in the order in which it was received. We can not begin to estimate the waiting time as there are some very big wishes ahead of yours. You may at any time cancel your wish. Thank you for using Elf Wishes. Have a good day.”
He had waited too long. Now what can he do?

#### News from Pigeon Falls-The little town in my basement where the trains still run, dragons fly, and life is back to normal. The festivities around the big snowmobile weekend begin tonight with a street dance. It is, of course, a little cold for a street dance but that doesn’t stop the people of Pigeon Falls. There will be plenty of beer to keep them warm. The locals are hoping our dragon will make an appearance and give all of our visitors something to remember.
Luke Snowslider is entering his machine in the big competition. Somehow he raised the entry fee . His snowmobile is a combination of a lot of old snowmobiles that he has put together and refined. Luke is an orphan who lives with his Aunt and Uncle out on a farm.
Barth Wader , who is head of the FLYFAST team said that “the kid ought to save his money. There is no way that the contraption that the kid has put together can beat a new FLYFAST machine. He’ll be lucky if he gets that pile of junk off the starting line. Now the new Polaris that‘s a different story.”
Tommy UK has given up on trying to get the Sauna closed. He is trying now to get the Tommy Club to picket with warning signs. If they keep people from going in the driblet still can’t come true.
Under some pressure the school board has canceled school tomorrow so that the students can help out at the races. This is more important than deer hunting , one parent argued, and you always cancel school for deer hunting.
*******

Today's Link- 40 - A bit of your average childhood.
In the morning I visited all my links. In the afternoon Betty took Maggie for a wal. It was warm out. It was up to 40. Now that's warm. The snow has started to melt. I worked in the basement laying out more train things to dsell on e-Bay. Soon that will be over and I can work on the layout. Now I need a breathing treatment.
GBYA