Broke the law quite a bit today, just now, using my handheld cell phone while driving.

I dreaded these two days, Monday & Tuesday, for good reason.

First of all, I haven't felt well since Saturday morning: dizzy spells and nausea. Like my first trimester all over again. Especially the dizzy spells which mean only one thing: dehydration. So I wasn't really "up" for what I had to do. But I still had to do it.

Yesterday was the day for the recall work on my XC90 to be performed. I told a neighbor that I would meet her at her backyard pool around noon, after I dropped off my car for service. Instead, it was more like 1:30 because of all the traffic on 35 South in Manasquan (on a Monday?!). So, the only respite was a couple of hours poolside before the race was on again. The service station told me that the car would be ready at 5:30.

It was nearly impossible to squeeze three car seats into the back of the S40 that they loaned me, so I convinced my eldest to stay at a neighbor's house until I returned.

Because of an afternoon of swimming, my two younger children fell asleep in the car during the drive back to the car dealership. I managed to transfer them from the loaner to my car without waking them. Either I'm that good or they were that tired. But they both woke up when we pulled in the driveway and consequently went to bed later than usual. Even still, I managed to fit in two loads of laundry and, after Jeff arrived home around 8, eked out an emergency grocery shopping trip for bread and breakfast cereal.

This morning was practically Ground Hog Day except I took in Jeff's car for service.

And what dawned on me yesterday was how silly to return home when the beach is so close. So, we made for the beach, got an excellent parking spot along the boardwalk (I don't mind paying $3 in quarters for three hours of parking) and played on the 10th Avenue playground. Oh, this is Belmar, btw, where I bought my season badge way back before Memorial Day. Today was our first trip to the Shore, as sad as that sounds.

The kids were nagging me for ice cream after an hour, but I held them off for another hour.

By 2:15 they couldn't stand it anymore, so we packed up and loaded up and some lucky devil got nearly an hour of free parking off my vacated meter.

As we drove to Strollo's at 5th and Main, my phone rang -- Jeff's car would be ready soon. We ate our ice cream. I picked up some raw seafood at Hamptons & Havens. We watched the drawbridge on Route 71 go up and two boats pass under. We passed the train station in town but there weren't any trains coming either way. We left town and went to the car dealership. We were there by 3:30.

I transferred beach gear and car seats to Jeff's car and loaded the kids up and glanced at the clock: 3:50! There was no way that I would arrive home in time to meet Kenny's camp bus which comes at 4:20. I was 40 minutes away from home! So, I started working the phone. First I called the camp and they told me that there was nothing they could do (very helpful). I tried a neighbor but got no answer. I called Jeff at work and asked him to try other neighbors whose telephone numbers I didn't have with me and I started driving at 4pm.

The really funny thing is that (1) I made excellent time, hit all the green lights and very little traffic and (2) the alarm on Tim's wristwatch which goes off every afternoon at 4:00 and again at 4:05 -- local Timmy time, so that's about 4:06 and 4:11, respectively. And the alarm sounds just like my phone's ring!

So I'm driving and thinking that my phone is ringing, twice! Then it rang again, for real, and it was the camp's transportation department telling me that my son's bus is in front of my house and that no one appears to be home to meet the bus. I replied, "That's right, I'm about 20 minutes away." So, the deal that was struck was the neighbor girls took Kenny to their house. The older one has babysat Kenny on occasion.

So, here, I haven't eaten anything all day and I've used my phone a few times already while driving, what's another few minutes while I order Italian delivered? And that's what I did, pizza, shrimp parm for Kenny and spaghetti with garlic and olive oil. Lord knows I need my carbs. Just an old endurance runner at heart.

Oh, and the other funny thing was that Jeff's afternoon meeting was cancelled so he thought about leaving work early and would have been home to meet Kenny's bus. But, of course, he didn't come home early because he never comes home early. But the idea crossed his mind and he wishes that he would have acted on it. Oh, well, bottom line is that I need to stop taking our cars in for service because I've been spending my summer at the repair shop and I need to be home when Kenny's bus arrives.